A New World - The Tale of a Wandering Sage
by Psionic108
Summary: After the war has ended and a long lasting peace has been achieved, what does the now immortal Child of Prophecy do when he cannot go back to his home? Naruto remembers the memory of a girl he saved from pirates when he was messing with dimension seals..can that be his new home? Naruto Multi!Might have dark themes at times,but not a dark Naruto fic.
1. 1 The Beginning

**I don't own either Naruto or One Piece**

 **XxX**

It had been exactly a two hundred and eight years since the Fourth Great Shinobi War had ended. Naruto with help from Sasuke had managed to seal Kaguya. When all had seemed good and dandy, Sasuke had dropped a verbal bomb on them. He had announced his intention to kill all the five Kages and bring about his own revolution in the world and bring about his own twisted idea of peace. To do this he sealed all the freed tailed beasts within Chibaku Tensei intending to use their power to end Infinite Tsukuyomi after he killed Naruto. He demanded Naruto fight him to death; a demand which Naruto complied to happily. They fought for one whole day and night after which Naruto managed to defeat Sasuke and managed to beat some sense into him.

But the battle with Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had taken much out of Sasuke and on his deathbed he asked Naruto to use his eye to end the Infinite Tsukuyomi that had been cast. Nearing his death, Sasuke had managed to redeem himself if only just by an inch. He apologized to Naruto for killing 'them' but Naruto didn't accept it. How could he? He had his loved ones and expected him to forgive him just because he said a few words.

Naruto had implanted the Rinnegan with the help of Kakashi after his fight with Sasuke. Sakura was in pieces after hearing about his death. The Rinnegan of Sasuke was different from the one Naruto had achieved during his teen years. This Rinnegan had six tomoe split between its first two ripples. From what Naruto had gathered from his fight with Sasuke, the tomoe would disappear if Sasuke overused his Rinnegan, preventing him from using its full power until it had fully recharged, something that took a very long time. Sasuke was still able to use the powers of his Mangekyō Sharingan with his Rinnegan, but apparently couldn't use them or even form the Mangekyō in his other eye when it was recharging.

After a century of living like a hermit, Naruto had forgiven him if only just to end the cycle of reincarnation of Asura and Indra.

A few years down the road, he had managed to deactivate Sasuke's Rinnegan with the help of Fuinjutsu. Naruto now had to live with a two different colored eyes. One vibrant blue and the other coal black.

After the war had ended Naruto had become Hokage after Kakashi. His reign was the longest spanning over sixty four years. During his lifetime all of his friends had passed away. After their death, he took no wife, held no lands nor fathered any children. Many of his friends had died of old age and lived happy lives

Towards the end of his term or rather the reason for the end of his term was an incident that had shook Naruto's faith in the shinobi world. After Killer Bee had died, Kumo sealed Gyuki again within Kohaku no Jōhei which went against what they had promised after the end of war, all the nations had vowed to not seal any Biju within humans unless the Biju were willing. Gyuki had chosen to remain with Bee until his death but after that he was to be freed. To spare Gyuki the wrongful imprisonment, Naruto had resigned as Hokage and went to Kumo to talk Kumo out of it.

It turned out that there was a rebel faction within Kumo that didn't agree with Naruto's ideals and had taken over the village, though that didn't surprise Naruto seeing as Kumo was one of the most militaristic of all the Five great nations. After having a battle with the rebels and emerging victorious Naruto sealed Gyuki within himself which was Hachibi's idea.

Fearing that the other Big and small nations alike would fall to the temptation of power within reach Naruto with the permission of the tailed beasts, sealed them within himself temporarily until a permanent solution could be reached.

The jinchuriki of all the tailed beasts living in Konoha raised many protests from other nations so Naruto chose the life of a wandering hermit, never staying in one place for more than required time.

He had in the vaguest sense of the word had become immortal though he was physically only eighteen years old.

He had gained mastery in Fuinjutsu that was only subpar to his father and his Uzumaki ancestors. He had figured out how to create Hiraishin kunais but was unable to figure out how to leave seals directly onto people or objects permanently.

It was with this Fuinjutsu skills that he had managed to create a dimension seal that allowed him to travel through dimensions not unlike Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. He had found one dimension in which there were no humans...only animals and nature. It was a perfect place to let the Bijus roam free. He let all the Bijus out of his body, even Kurama who reluctantly left him. They all left him a parting gift and that was their chakra. After making him promise that he would come to them if he needed any help they all bid him their farewells.

He had found that he could travel through dimensions using his Hiraishin jutsu. That made him theorize that the dimensions he traveled weren't in different planes of existence but were separated by space. He had grown weary of this world. He wasn't welcome in most parts of the elemental nations as they didn't want to risk the ire of other nations by hosting him.

So he had decided that he would travel to another dimension and spread his message of peace. He had so many dimensions to choose from. One dimension he had went to had normal humans with no chakra networks but they were really advanced. They had tall buildings and some cool four wheeled automatic vehicles. During one of his travel, he had seen a weird creature with disproportionate body and having a white mask where his face found that interesting but the creature disappeared when Naruto wasn't paying attention and he wasn't just going to track it down to satisfy his had also seen people in Black Hakama like dressing walking around all the while being ignored by people. They had some strange energy within them, not unlike chakra but not exactly chakra. He didn't choose this world because the world already seemed at peace.

The next one was a weird world, there people loved with anthropomorphic animals and some lizard like giant creatures. But this works already had a savoir from what he had heard. His name was Hercules Satan and he had saved the world at least twice so Naruto thought that this world didn't need him.

He decided that he would go to the world he had accidentally visited at first when he had first developed this technique twenty years ago.

 **Flashback**

 _Naruto had just finished drawing his latest seal. The seal had been inspired by Kaguya's_ _ **Yomotsu Hirasaka**_ _technique that allowed her to open rifts in space. He had been working on this seal since he resigned as the Hokage, he was hoping that he would be able to open one rift that would lead to another dimension where he could let Bijus roam free without fear of capture. The seal was pretty big and was not handy, he was hoping to make it compact in future so that he could carry it with himself._

 _Naruto activated the seal and found himself looking at a beach from above. There was a ship anchored on the beach with a pirate's flag being flown on the crow's nest. A little girl was running away from some men chasing her. She tripped on a stone and fell and soon the men surrounded her._

 _He could only hear some snippets of what they were saying._

" _Look wha-….ou..di-….t-..us you devil chi-.."Said one of the men_

" _Yes yo-….betr-…. We'll ma-…pay." declared the other man_

' _I'm sorry I didn't do anything, believe me please don't hurt me." Naruto head the last part crystal clear. This kid was in danger and he would be damned if he let an innocent soul be hurt on his watch. Fueled by emotion, Naruto entered the fray with only one thing on his mind 'protect her'. In his Kurama Chakra Mode, Naruto instantly knocked out the men without being seen._

 _The girl was scared by this flash. What was that? A golden flash and all the men were down on the ground….and then she saw him. It was as if his whole body was clad in yellow flames and they were flickering of his body. She was in a daze, this man had singlehandedly defeated the entire crew of Chesskippa pirates and hadn't broken a sweat, not that she could see with all him glowing golden. He asked her if she was okay and she nodded. He asked for her name and she again nodded; she was in a daze. This man had an aura if she could call him that was so warm and full of life. She felt that she could live in this glow for her whole life comfortably._

" _Hey, I asked what your name was?" he asked her again waving his hands in front of her._

" _Robin…Nico Robin." She squeaked, still not sure whether to trust this man. The last time she had trusted a man, Chesskippa and now he was out for her blood._

" _I can't stay here any longer, I see the rift closing. Keep this" he said handing her a three pronged stabbing knife of some sort. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto, I don't know if it will work but keep this anyways. Who knows I might be able to come here again. Now stay safe kid and don't get in any trouble." He told her as he ruffled her hair._

 _-And just like that Naruto went back to his world before the rift closed._

( **Flashback end)**

He had after a month managed to figure out how to use Hiraishin to travel to different dimensions or rather different dimensions in same space. He remembered the second and the last time he had seen her and then his visits had ended abruptly. He just couldn't sense the kunai anymore.

( **Flashback)**

 _He had been still researching on ways to travel through dimensions freely. He could have settled in any one of those dimensions but he always came back to elemental nations. Because that was his home, Gods save him if he didn't visit Shima-baa chan every once in a while there plus he had to ensure that peace remained. He decided that he would pay the girl he saved a visit but first he needed to prepare. He needed at least an hour to locate the Hiraishin kunai he had given her. It was a problem and he hadn't gotten around to fixing it yet._

 _After locating her, he teleported to her location. He saw her laughing in the rain and sitting on a rock. There was a dog with her and she was laughing in a weird way._

" _Dereshishishi! Dereshishishi!" she was laughing wholeheartedly. This was the first time he had seen her happy._

" _That's music to my ears Robin-chan"_

 _Looking up, she got embarrassed. She at first didn't recognize him then realization dawned on her. Same wavy blond hair and same voice._

" _Yo-you came!" She exclaimed loudly._

" _Of course I came… I told you I would figure out how to come here."_

 _The dog looked at him in puzzlement, cocking his head to the right._

" _Is that a new friend you got there?" he asked her while looking playfully at the dog._

' _Ye-yes I think. He came here to me asking for food….but I don't have any." She said sadly._

 _Just as she finished saying that her stomach grumbled loudly._

" _Well we can't have that now, can we? Wait a second" he said as his hands lit up with blue and red flames. After bringing his hand s together, there a basket of onigiri and sushi in his hands. He had used his_ _ **Banbutsu Sōzō no Jutsu.**_ _An ability granted to him by the Rinnegan. He could create anything by mixing his Yin and Yang chakra. Though he was right now only limited to small things like food or weapons. He couldn't create living things …yet. He had discovered this ability recently._

" _Woah, how did you do that? Can you teach it to me?"_

" _Well, a sage never reveals his secret and no I can't teach it to you as it's a technique only exclusive to me, sorry."_

 _She looked downtrodden at hearing this but soon perked up at the prospect of having something to eat. She gave took the basket from his hand and gave some rice balls to the dog._

 _She started munching down on the food and later realized that there was no salt in the onigiri._

" _Ne….why is there no salt in this?" she asked him with a look that made Naruto uncomfortable._

" _Oh crap sorry, I just learned this technique so you'll have to forgive me for this." Naruto said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly._

" _So Naruto-san, you said you are a sage but then why don't you look old and wise?" she asked teasingly_

" _Well…I'm older that you think an-…..hey did you just call me stupid looking" Naruto asked with mock rage_

 _She laughed again at this. He really like listening to her laugh._

" _You've got a cute laugh" he said complementing her._

 _She blushed at hearing this and he found that even cuter._

 _Seeing that they were getting wet in the rain, Naruto took her aside near the beach and going through some hand seals he created a large wooden house. But the house was crooked and seemed unfinished. The jutsu was called_ _ **Mokuton: Shichūka no Jutsu**_ ; _it created a house using his wood release._

 _Naruto had gained the ability to use Mokuton after he got the Rinnegan. Having Hashirama's chakra in his system was a bonus that allowed him to master the technique to some extent and not be utterly exhausted after using it. He had learned this technique from his Mokuton sensei Yamato._

 _The girl was really shocked to say, was her savior even a human? Or had he eaten some weird devil fruit? Many questions went through her mind._

" _Now you can sleep here without having to worry about getting the cold." He told her._

" _Thank you Naruto-san. I can't believe you did this just for me."_

" _Hey don't worry about it. Now sleep, I have to go back. Keep the kunai with you so I can come here. You see, the kunai acts as a beacon to my technique which allows me to travel to your location. So don't lose it okay because it'll keep you safe."_

 _She just nodded happily._

 _Then ruffling her hair once again Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash._

 **(Flashback End)**

That world seemed to have problems from what he had seen plus he could use some fun, all the sitting around had made him quite rusty. He had figured a way to differentiate the dimensions using his sensory technique. All the dimensional rifts vibrated at different energy frequency. By identifying the frequency he could identify which was which dimension. He decided to open a rift to the dimension where he had met the girl, he just couldn't remember her name now. He decided that he would search for her and see if she was safe and also try to spread his message of peace while he was at it, after all being the Child of Prophecy meant he had to bring peace to the world he adopted and that was exactly what he was going to do.

Entering the rift, only one thought crossed Naruto's mind.

'A new world, a new beginning."

 **XxX**

 _ **Yomotsu Hirasaka –**_ This ability allows user to be able to form rifts within the fabric of space which allows them to instantaneously transport themselves to different locations. They are also capable of transporting sections of their body by partially entering through the portal.

 _ **Banbutsu Sōzō no Jutsu -**_ The Creation of All Things Technique was a technique possessed by Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, who used it to create the nine tailed beasts. The process he used is explained to have initially involved the administration of imagination, and the spiritual energy which forms the basis of Yin chakra to create physical forms from nothingness. Then, through the application of vitality, and the physical energy which forms the basis of Yang chakra, he would breathe life into the resulting creations.

 _ **Mokuton: Shichūka no Jutsu -**_ By sending chakra into the ground, the roots of the plants are converted into raw materials. This technique allows for a building to be constructed, by forcing accelerated growth. The size and shape of the house is taken from memories and imagination.

 **XxX**

 **This story is set in the same universe as my other story One More Day and is set in future after the Fourth Shinobi War. So the powers he exhibits here are the power he will gain in that story later on. Enjoy and please review as reviews are what motivate me to write more. Have a nice day**


	2. 2 The First Meeting

**I own neither One Piece nor Naruto.**

 **XxX**

 **A/N: - I would like to clarify some things particularly the fact that when I said that Naruto became an immortal in the truest sense of the word, I meant that he just couldn't age beyond eighteen, he can still die if killed. I know it was dumb of me to write it that way. I meant to write in 'vaguest sense of' but I mistakenly typed it as in 'truest sense of word' .Sorry if this is a turn off for anyone I sincerely apologize for that. Now enjoy the story and please don't kill me. Naruto is still going to be really powerful, you don't have to look beyond Kenchi618's Shinobi of the High Seas to see what kind of strength Naruto is capable of with just Sennin mode and Rinnegan.**

 **XxX**

He exited the rift and he thought that he thought something that sounded deep but was just an acute observation. It had been twenty years since he had last visited this world but things were different then, then, he had Kurama and the others inside him but now, now he was alone. He was also less powerful now that he thought about it. After his fight with Sasuke he had found himself unable to access the Rikudo Senjutsu. It was like he just couldn't summon the power. This led to him to theorize that when he had all the nine Bijus chakra in his body, he became a pseudo Juubi jinchuriki and thus was granted half the powers of the sage. But after the battle with Sasuke, Naruto had been almost on death's doorsteps. He had exhausted most of his and the other tailed beast's chakra within himself.

And that's why he had lost the ability. But now he had the chakra of all nine Bijus again, maybe he could enter it again but decided to test it for later. If he could access it, he would have to access in times when the situation was dire and he needed the power the most and with no Kurama to recharge him when he was down, he would now to have to be careful how he flaunted around the power. He also didn't want to go to Kurama and ask him to get back in him as he deserved to be free but decided to cross that bridge when he arrived there.

Now that his train of thought had ended he realized the situation he was in because he was standing on sea with no land in sight. He had no idea where he could start searching for the girl. Sitting down on the surface of the sea. He started gathering natural energy and within a few moments the area just around his eyes gained orange pigmentation. He opened his eyes and they had gained a golden color with horizontal bar like pupils. This was his sennin mode, mixing Senjutsu chakra with his chakra he gained this ability. When he had first started using sennin mode he needed to gather natural energy for longer periods of time which made it impractical in combat situations, he had come up with a workaround using his shadow clones but that still didn't make it any easier.

When he was a freshly minted sage, he needed to pull in the nature energy around him against its flow, but now after years of practice and living with oneness in nature, the energy had started flooding into him as if floodgates had been opened. Now it was just a matter of opening the gates just enough so that he could take the prerequisite Senjutsu chakra within him and then he closed the gates. It took only mere moments for this to happen. But in a battle the more he used his own chakra, the harder it would get to balance the Senjutsu chakra and would need more concentration. Well he could still use his Kurama chakra mode since Kurama had left him butt loads of chakra as a parting gift, it wasn't like the other Bijus had been stingy but compared to them Kurama just had tons of more chakra so he naturally got more from him.

Sensing some mild chakra signatures on the level with civilians to the northwest of his position some miles away, he started running towards them from his position.

In a few minutes he had covered about fifty miles and had reached his destination. There he saw a horrifying sight. A teenage girl was being chased by pirates. 'Hmm…I get a sense of Deja-vu here.'

 **XxX**

An orange haired teen was running for her life with a map clutched to her chest. She was being followed by three very burly angry looking men.

"I-I finally did it, finally got the map to grand line." The girl seemingly said to herself between breaths.

"You bitch give it back." One of them said.

"How dare you steal the map of grand line from us?" Second one bellowed.

"DAMMIT I DON'T WANT TO BE BLASTED BY BOSS'S CANON." The third one screamed.

Just as they were closing on her, suddenly a man appeared before them. The man had sunny blonde hair and was wearing an orange over cloak underneath which was a black T-shirt and blue shinobi pants.

The girl was looking back at the man who was facing her pursuers and the men were gawking at the speed at which the man appeared.

"Grown men chasing little girls, kind of sends a wrong message, doesn't it? "He quipped at the expense of the three men

"Hey I'm no little girl." The orange haired girl told him, and then she continued, "Thank you boss, they almost caught me." She said trying to involve him in this game of cat and mouse. And then she ran away saying "I'll leave the rest to you."

"Huh? What was that about? Anyways stop chasing teen girls through a deserted town, it kind of sends a wrong impression."

"You're her boss huh, we'll make you pay for your underling's crime."

"Now now, I'm sure we can solve this peacefully. No need for any of you to get hurt."

"You're just a weakling huh, trying to talk us out of this."

"Let's get him boys." One of them shouted as they charged at him.

Naruto jumped over the first charging man and using his head as a base front flipped with his right hand which sent the charging man meet the ground with his face.

The man got up, his face bleeding courtesy of the rough surface of the ground.

The three men had things that differentiated them from each other. One had a bandana, the other had stitches across his forehead and the third had black…..hair? Yeah, he just had black hair.

The bandana guy attacked him with a forward slash of his sword which Naruto sidestepped and sent a punch across his face which knocked him out.

Guess he didn't know how to his own strength after years of no combat.

The girl who was watching this from a roof of a nearby house thought to herself, 'Wow, this guy is really strong huh'

The two men now became cautious but Naruto now was getting impatient,

"I really wanted to settle this without any conflict but now I'm getting bored of this pointless fight so I'll end this right now."

With that said, just as Naruto was about to knock them out-

"AAAAAHHH!" there was a scream and then something landed on the two aggressors knocking them out cold.

"Ah I'm saved." A voice came from the dust cloud that was created when the thing landed on them.

"I'm hunngggry" the voice moaned.

A boy came out of the dust cloud patting his clothes all over, he looked to be about the same as the orange haired girl.

"Ah, you know where I can get some food around here?" the boy asked he was wearing short blue trouser and a sleeveless red vest. He had straw hat on his head which suited him quite nicely.

"You must forgive me for I am new here I can't help you out with that matter." Naruto politely told him.

"Never mind, I'm Monkey D. Luffy, I am going to be the king of pirates."

Naruto quickly became wary of this boy, from what he could gather of his previous visits to this world, pirates were bad guys. But this boy didn't have any malice in him that he had started correlating with pirates.

"Why do you want to be a pirate king? What do you think being a pirate is?" Naruto asked hoping to mine some information regarding his intentions.

"It's simple really, the one who has the most freedom on the seas is the pirate King and being a pirate is all about following your dreams no matter what."

Naruto was surprised by this answer, so simple yet deep.

The orange haired girl who had ran away then returned,

"Wow, you are really strong, thanks for helping me out there."

"What helping you out there, you just sic'd them on me and ran away." Naruto said a little pissed off.

Sticking her tongue out and punching her head in a playful manner she said "Teehee."

"Don't you 'Teehee' me." Naruto retorted.

"Anyways, I'm Nami. Man you are really strong, want to be my partner? And who's your friend?"

"No, I'm not interested in being a partner to a thief, yes I know you stole that map. You shouldn't pick fights with people you can't face. And this is Luffy" he said reprimanding her with sagely wisdom and while introducing Luffy to her.

"Hi, I'm Luffy. Do you have anything to eat?"

"Now you two young'uns mingle while I go look for something else interesting." And he left.

"What does he mean 'young'uns'? He's basically the same age as us."

"Ah I'm hungry." Luffy moaned again.

"Come on, I'll treat ya" It's the least she could do for the man who had indirectly knocked out her pursuers.

 **XxX**

 **(A little while later with Naruto)**

He had been walking around the town and had found it deserted. Only one he could find was a dog in front a pet food store. The dog just gave him a curious glance and went back to staring ahead.

Thinking of nothing else to do, he went and sat by the dog's side and started stroking his head. The dog had white fur with a long face. Animals' emotions were tricky for him to sense, they were mostly hungry or afraid of him. But this dog was sad and angry.

"Why such a long face?' he snickered at his own joke.

"…"

"Hmm…I know how you feel, I have no idea how to start my quest or where to look for her. It's been such a long time too, I wonder if she remembers me?" He sighed

"…"

The dog just gave him a weird look and then started barking as if trying to say something.

Hearing the dog barking, a man came out from a nearby street and started walking toward them,

"Hey, stop pestering Shushu. Get away from him."

"I'm not pestering him, just talking and it seems like he is talking with me too, anyways who are you old man?"

The man had white hair in a weird hair style and glasses. He was wearing a makeshift armor

"I'm the mayor of this town." He proclaimed proudly.

"A mayor by yourself huh, I guess you were the only candidate and the only voter, am I right or what?" He said proud of his joke.

"WH-what? No! I was elected by a majority by this town's people. But ever since that dastardly pirate came and ran us out of this town, I'm the only one here now. We are weak, but I refuse to hand over this town to some pirates. I am going to fight for my home."

"That's the spirit Oji-san. But before you go, tell me the whole story of this town and why the pirates came." Naruto asked, interested to know the story behind the forsaking the of town

"I suppose I can tell you that much, A few years ago, a man named Sahil came to this town from an island called Alabasta in Grand Line. He settled down in this town and was a peaceful man, we called him 'Vicky'. Vicky had drawn some maps of some places in Grand Line and how to enter that place. The maps were one of its kind and was the pride of this town. There was supposedly also a treasure map hidden among them." He sighed.

"It was all our fault really, we shouldn't have paraded it around but word of this maps reached Buggy, The clown pirate and he came here looking for them. We, after a discussion amongst us, we decided to hand him the maps as the lives of townspeople were more important but Buggy took this as a sign of weakness and threw us out of our own town. Hocker, my friend and Shushu's owner was one of the first to protest this and he was beaten by the pirates to be made an example. He died some days later."

"The reason Shushu stands here is because the shop behind him was Hocker's. He stands guard here day and night to protect his legacy. Now-a-days the pirates just plunder our food stores and keep blowing up the houses with his canon. It's deplorable really that we were driven out of here." The mayor finished.

"I see." Naruto said solemnly. So that's why the town was deserted, why only the Shushu and the mayor were here.

"I think what you are doing is noble Mayor-san. More people should be like you, to fight for what matters." He said and after a pause he continued. "I know, I'll help you in cleaning out the pirates out of this town Bur first gather the townspeople and announce your intentions to them, I'm sure many will follow you because after all this is their home, their safe place. Till then I'll scope out the place and wait for you here."

The mayor was….happy?, this young man wanted to help him and had gave him something to think about. He was no fool, he knew if he went alone he would be beaten just like Hocker but with others with him, then maybe they could have a chance. Bidding him bye, he went towards the outskirts of town to gather forces.

'Now that he is out of the way, time to teach these pirates a lesson.

Patting Shushu's head for one last time he went towards the area where he could feel large number of chakra signatures.

Three were heading this way, two of them he recognized, Luffy and Nami. He met them halfway there. The new addition was a green haired man, he looked about a year older than Naruto. He had three swords strapped to his body and a wound on his stomach. He was carrying Luffy, who was tied and left inside a cage.

"What happened to you guys? And Luffy, why are you in a cage?"

"Captain, who is this guy?" the green haired man asked Luffy wary of Naruto

"Ah Zoro this is …..Who are you anyways?" Luffy asked

"Yes, I never got your name." Nami added

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the Gama Sennin." He said striking a pose

"Huh?" was all they said with a sweat drop forming on the back of their heads.

"Never mind me, what happened to you guys?" he asked them again.

"The Big red nose did this." The now named Zoro told him.

"Who?" Naruto asked perplexed

"Buggy the clown, we are running away from him." Nami answered

"Hey! You are running away, I'm just retreating for a while." Zoro told Nami to which Luffy agreed by nodding Hm Hm.

"What a coincidence, I'm looking for him. Point me in his direction will you"

"WH-why? Why look for him, he's a bad man." Nami asked suddenly cautious of Naruto. Was he going to join the man? Was he also a pirate?

"Well, I met with the mayor of this town and he told me of the crimes this Buggy has committed. I've got a bone to pick with guys like him, people who think that if they have power then they can do anything, even take someone's life. I hate people like them and so for that reason I'm looking for him, to teach him a lesson."

The way he said it struck a chord within Nami's heart, the conviction with which he said it made shivers go down her spine. It was as if he was talking about her situation, it made her respect him.

"Well he's that way." Zoro said pointing towards his direction.

"And by the way, do you need help with the cage Luffy?" Naruto asked them.

"Yes please!"

"I've got it" Nami said fishing a key out of her pocket before Naruto could act.

"Anyways if an old man I makeshift armor comes here kindly stop him from going ahead from this point, he's a good man and I don't want him getting hurt in the ensuing fight." Naruto told them.

"Sure" Luffy told him

"Well I sense two people coming this way, I trust that you guys can handle them" Naruto told them and took off in Buggy's direction.

 **XxX**

 **(With Buggy)**

"Damn that thief and her boss" Buggy muttered to himself, "What are you guys doing gawking at my nose? Go catch them and bring me Roronoa's head"

"Captain Buggy! Captain Buggy! The man who defeated the Superhuman Domingos is here, he is asking us to surrender peacefully and he will not hurt us he says. He also said to give back what we have plundered from the town.

"Yo" Naruto greeted them casually as he walked towards Buggy.

"You've got quite a lot of nerve coming here, get him boys" Buggy ordered them to attack.

Within few seconds most of Buggy's crew were lying on the ground beaten and knocked out.

It was so fast that if he hadn't seen this feat he would have considered it a joke by someone. Most of his crewmates were down on the ground.

"Now will you surrender peacefully or will you have me make an example out of you?" he asked casually while picking his ear.

"Don't worry Senchou, I'll handle this scum who thinks he can just traipse around here." The man was wearing a white and blue checkered scarf.

"Yes Cabaji, see to it that I'm not disturbed." Buggy told the now named Cabaji.

He started travelling towards Naruto on his unicycle and while feigning a forward slash yelled **Kyokugi! Kaji Oyaji** (Blazing breath) and breathed fire on Naruto's face. He felt pride soar in his chest at defeating this opponent so easily but was shocked when he just found a burning log in instead of the blonde man.

"I'll show you how to breathe fire for real, **Katon** " and he breathed out fire that easily dwarfed Cabaji's. It was just simple fire manipulation really, not even a real jutsu. The end result was Cabaji rolling on the floor, trying to put out the fire. But before he could get up, Naruto kicked him in the head which sent him flying into a wall.

"Now surrender peacefully and I'll take you to this world's authorities that's option 'A' and if you resist, I'll still take you to the authorities but with a broken body, that's option 'B'. The choice is yours."

"I'll choose option 'C', I'll just kill you and get away scot-free." He said as he lunged at Naruto.

"I see you chose option 'B'" Naruto said to him as he side stepped his attacks and danced circles around him.

Getting really tired of him not able to land a strike, Buggy disbanded his body into pieces and flew towards him intending on surprising him with this attack.

Naruto was to say the least, surprised. He had seen weird abilities but this one took the prize. The moment of surprise cost him time which he could have used to dodge the attack. The sword made contact with Naruto's chest and…..broke into pieces. The reason was that Naruto hadn't yet exited the Sage mode he had entered when he came to the island.

"Wha! How is this possible?" Buggy exclaimed

"It's a little thing that I have called Sennin mode. It augments my physical capabilities to superhuman levels. But enough of that. It's time for you to go to sleep" Naruto said as he grabbed his head and smashed it into his forehead. Buggy was knocked out instantly.

Luffy and his friends who were watching this were floored. This man had just single handedly defeated a man with 15 million Beli bounty as if it was child's play. Then they remembered that they were running away from the townspeople for knocking out the mayor.

Naruto who saw them started running with them

"Why are we running?" he asked innocently.

"Because this idiot-"Nami said pointing towards Luffy, '-knocked the man you asked us to keep an eye out for."

"WHAT?" Naruto screamed out in rage, he knew Luffy would not do something like this for no reason but he was just angry now.

"STOP" Naruto said holding out his hand and they all stopped instinctively.

"We are going to talk this through with the villagers and clear the misunderstanding. First of all why did you knock him out Luffy?"

"Well he was going to enter the fight that you were fighting and when the villagers asked if I knocked him out I just said yes"

"Tha-that was exactly what I asked you to do but you could've just restrained him, no need to knock an old man out."

Imitating Nami's previous 'Teehee' expression, Luffy said "Teehee"

"Don't Teehee me you idiot." Naruto almost cried out asking Gods what he did to deserve to be in such a situation.

"HEY! YOU, STOP" a villager who noticed them cried out. They stood there until he reached them.

"You will pay for attacking Boodle-san, he himself will sentence you as the mayor."

Just then the mayor appeared out of the now forming crowd among them.

"It's you boy, I came searching for you but you were not there, then-then this boy attacked me saying I couldn't interfere in the fight." He addressed Naruto.

"Mayor-san, I assure you this is all just a misunderstanding. I went to face Buggy and asked this guys to not let you go there as you might have gotten hurt, but my friend here used excessive force by accident and thus you were knocked out. Tell you what, as a compensation you can collect the pirate's bounty and his treasure for yourself and repair the town, I won't collect it."

"That sounds reasonable."

"Hey what are you doing Naruto? We could use the money." Nami asked him.

"Nami this people had been oppressed by the pirate and some even lost their lives. I can't just take their one chance of regaining their lives back from them. They need the money and plus I'm sure Luffy will agree with me too, am I right Luffy?"

"Yeah just give us meat and we are good."

"Yo-You selfless idiots" Nami huffed but understood the situation somewhat since it was similar to her own situation back home.

 **XxX**

"Hey Naruto." Luffy addressed him

"Huh?" Naruto who was taking a nap on the small boat they four were in replied/asked.

"Join my crew na."

"Luffy while I would love to be your nakama, I just came here a day back. I need time to think about who I ally myself with, please forgive me for declining your offer right now. But tell you what I'll surely think about it." after which he went back to his nap

Luffy who normally would've have kept on pursuing this subject, decided to let him have time to think.

Nami who had been observing this felt a sense of relief spread in her chest as she saw him decline his offer to be a pirate. While she didn't have anything against Luffy, she didn't exactly have good history with pirates.

Zoro was napping blissfully unaware that this conversation ever happened.

 **XxX**

 **The reason I say that Naruto lost his six paths Senjutsu is because in his fight with Toneri in Naruto- The Last, he didn't use his truth seeking balls. I think he lost the power which is no fair because Sasuke had his Rinne-sharingan in the movie. Plus If Naruto had his all powers then this story would get boring instantly. That's why I put some limitation on him or there would be no challenge for him and he would just mow down people. But Naruto is still powerful because he has got Sasuke's Rinne-sharingan.**

 **Have a nice day and don't kill me in my sleep.**


	3. 3 The Liar

**I own neither Naruto nor One Piece.**

 **XxX**

"If we head south there is a small inhabited village there, maybe we can find a good ship there." Nami told them a she was looking over a map.

"Ahh time to eat some meat!" Luffy exclaimed at hearing the news regarding an inhabited village. You see the past few days that they were on the small boat, they had been eating only fruits as fruits were the only thing that had yet to go bad from heat.

"Some sake would be nice." Zoro chimed in.

"Some ramen would be good too." Naruto added. It seemed these past years hadn't affected his appetite for ramen.

"Grrh, you guys only think about eating and drinking?" Nami asked

"Yes" replies Luffy.

Naruto was in thinking his pose thinking back on his fight with Buggy, the ability he had used was different than what he had seen back on his world. He wondered if there were more people who could separate their body into parts. Was that a Kekkei Genkai of Buggy's or some common technique in this world?

Nami who had been taking peeks at Naruto ever since they left Orange town noticed him deep in thought. Scooting closer to him she asked

"What are you thinking about Naruto?"

"Ah? Oh nothing, it's just that when fighting with Buggy he used this weird technique. He split his body into different parts and attacked me, you saw that right? So I was wondering how he did that." Naruto who was roused of his trance told her.

"Oh that? I think I know how he did that, he must have eaten a devil fruit that granted him those abilities."

"Devil fruits?" Naruto asked puzzled.

"You know Devil fruits, fruits that grant people who eat them abilities. Like Luffy here for example has eaten **Gomu Gomu no Mi.** That fruit changed his body to that of a rubber."

"Oh I see, so it can change your body like it did with Buggy and Luffy. Is that the extent of it?"

"Well yes basically but there are three types of fruit namely Paramecia which is what Luffy ate and then there are Zoan and Logia types. Logia is said to be strongest as you can't physically hurt them. But they all have one weakness, they can't swim and in seas water their strength is sucked out of them. Why don't you know about this, it's common knowledge? Were you living under a rock or something?"

"Something like that" he mumbled.

"LAND AHOY" Zoro shouted as he saw a silhouette of an island forming on the horizon.

"Finally now I can get some meat."

Ignoring Luffy Naruto asked her, "So do these fruits grow on a tree?"

"N-No, not that I know of, even though the knowledge of fruits powers is common, their origins are shrouded in mystery." Nami told him as she placed a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

Soon they landed and docked the ship. The way to the village was cut between two opposing slopes of land that were at greater height than the road.

Carrying out his usual routine when in a new place, Naruto spread his sensory awareness around. He sensed about four people hiding in the bushes though they were no threat as they were just children and one teen, nothing he couldn't handle.

Zoro who was yawning suddenly stiffened and placed his right hand on the sword, "Careful, someone's here"

Just as he said a number of projectiles were shot at Luffy's feet which made him hop from one leg to other to dodge, it was quite comical to see.

"Fear me for I am the Captain of Pirates who conquered this village." a voice called out from atop one of the small cliff there. "Everyone praise me and call me captain Usopp!"

The voice belonged to one boy, he was scrawny and was wearing brown overall with no shirt, a white sash at his hip and a yellow bag at his side. Though his most defining feature was his longer than normal nose.

As he finished his proclamation a number of pirate flags popped out of bushes.

"If you enter here you will have to face my 80 million men who will crush you like a bug."

An expression of amazement and wonder spread across Naruto and Luffy's face respectively at hearing this. Luffy because he really believed that there were 80 million men there and Naruto because he was impressed by the blatant lie the kid had just told them.

"Eight-Eighty Million!" Luffy cried out in amazement.

"Oi idiot, that's a lie obviously" Zoro told him.

"WH-What! A lie!?" Luffy sounded crestfallen.

"Shit he caught me" the long-nosed boy said to himself loudly "I might not have millions of men at my command but I have strong companions" he boasted.

"All three of them" Nami asked slyly.

"Shit we are caught"

"I can't do this"

"I don't wanna die" said three different voices and out of bushes came three little children and they scurried off towards the village.

"Shit" said the long nosed boy and then suddenly he whipped out a slingshot out of his bag and aimed it at Luffy.

"I might just be attacking with pachinko but my skill with it is better than pistol."

Adjusting his straw-hat, eyes hidden by its shadow Luffy said, "Now that you mentioned pistols-"

He looked up straight at the boy and stated "Bet your life on it, it's not a tool to scare people."

-And just like that all the determination the boy had disappeared, his legs started quivering and his ammo-pachinko fell to the ground.

"As I thought real pirates are a different thing" the boy again loudly said to himself.

At hearing this Luffy and Zoro started laughing. "I just repeated what my idol Shanks once said."

"Sh-Shanks you say, you know that great pirate?" the boy asked Luffy, a sense of wonder spreading across his face

"Yasopp isn't it, your father's name"

The boy was shocked to say the least and in his shock lost his footing on the cliff and fell down comically.

"How do you know my father?" the boy asked Luffy curiously.

"I met him when he was with Shanks, I believe he still is. Your father is the best marksmen I've ever seen." Luffy told him.

"I-I see" the boy said unable to contain his excitement.

"Not to intrude on this emotional moment but can we get to eat and talk, I'm hungry you know" Naruto who was observing this silently broke his silence.

"Ah yes Meat!" Luffy agreed.

 **XxX**

" **-** and that's why I know about you, your father never stopped once he started talking about you."

After Luffy had recounted his story regarding Yasopp, Usopp was extremely happy at hearing that his father was really a great pirate.

Nami broached the subject regarding their need for a ship but Usopp said that they were just a small village. Then when Zoro pointed out the large expensive looking mansion and whether or not if they could finance them Usopp suddenly got mum about it. Then citing that he remembered something important, he left asking them to order anything as he knew the owner of the shop pretty well.

"Well that could've gone better." Naruto said patting his stomach. He had devoured fifteen bowls of ramen. It was safe to say that Naruto loved ramen as much as Luffy loved meat.

Just then there was a chime at the door and the three kids that had ran away appeared with short wooden swords in their hands.

"What have you done with captain Usopp?!" A boy with green pepper like hairstyle asked.

"Ah! That was some good meat" Luffy said rubbing his gut.

"Do-Don't tell m-me th-that captain Us-Usopp was..."

Zoro not missing the chance to mess with the kids said with an evil glint in his eyes, "Your captain was….eaten"

"ONI BABA!" they said pointing at Nami, who a second ago was enjoying the show.

Naruto who heard this burst out laughing, "O-Oni Baba" he said holding his stomach.

After hearing Naruto laugh at the name she blushed and started cursing Luffy and Zoro.

The kids were looking at them in abject horror, seeing this Naruto tried to calm them down

'Settle down kids, your friend just remembered some important stuff to do and went away just a while ago. You can still find him but if you would be so kind, I believe my friends have some questions for you."

Hearing this they relaxed visibly. "Okay that's good because otherwise we would have beaten you" the boy with the orange cap bandana said with false bravado.

"Well first if all your names would be nice" Nami said.

"Oh that's an easy one, I'm Tamanegi" the boy with the glasses said and then pointing at the boy with orange in bandana "he's Ninjin and that's Piiman"

And after that they answered many of their questions regarding the village and where they could get a big ship. The kids told them about the mansion and its owner's history. Turned out the now owner of the mansion was a young sickly girl named Kaya, three years back her parents had died in an accident and she had been orphaned but all was not sad as she found faithful servant and friend in her butler Klahadore. He was her ever since her father took him in from the streets.

It turned out to cheer her up, Usopp would tell her outrageous lies about his supposed adventures and he was very protective of Kaya and that might have been the reason why he was mum about the mansion and its people.

It was then that Luffy decided that they should ask her for a ship. So they went to the mansion led by the three Usopp pirates. There were guards at the gate so Luffy had a bright idea…which was actually a stupid one but they went along with it nevertheless. Luffy stretched his arms grabbing the fence and creating a slingshot and then asked everybody to grab him.

-and then they flew up and later came crashing down on the other side of the fence by a tree on which Usopp was sitting. Naruto was the only one who landed gracefully. Using his mastery over wind he glided down like a badass while carrying the three kids safely down.

Kaya and Usopp were surprised to see them.

"WH-Who are they?" Kaya asked Usopp, a bit afraid of the strangers.

"Don't be afraid. They are people who heard about me and have come to join me." Usopp lied

"That's not it. I have a favor to ask you" Luffy told the girl

"A-a favor, from me?" Kaya asked surprised

"Yes, we need a big ship" Luffy stated spreading out his arms to signify 'big'

"You there, what are you doing here?" A man with in a black suit and with glasses asked as he walked towards

"Klahadore!"

"You are trespassing here and causing trouble." He told them

"Now now Butler-san we are just trying to ask the Ojou-sama here a favor." Naruto said trying to ease in the tension.

"For all I care you might as well be begging." He said to Naruto and then to Kaya he said "Kaya-sama, how many times have I told you not to associate with this kind of filth. He is the town's troublemaker. He lies to you Kaya-sama. His father is just a low life pirate who left his mother and him to chase a worthless dream."

"Klahadore, cease this at once. Apologize to Usopp-san" Kaya told him.

"Why should I Ojou-sama, what I'm saying is the truth. He is just a son of a low-class pirate."

"You-You called my father low-class." Usopp said through gritted teeth.

"What you are actually owning up to the fact that he is your father. At times like this you should just do what you do best: lie. Just say that he is not your real father or that he is not your birth-father."

Really angry now, Usopp descended from the tree and was about to charge at Klahadore but a grip on his shoulder stopped him.

Looking back he saw one Naruto Uzumaki staring at him with warm but steely gaze, as if judging him. Under his gazed Usopp faltered and his anger seemed to disappear.

"He's not worth it, not right now" Naruto told Usopp.

"We're leaving" he told the group

"Yes leave and don't come back." Klahadore called out

 **XxX**

It was evening time and sun was setting leaving a fire orange hue across the clouds. After they had left the mansion grounds Usopp left the group saying he needed to be alone.

He was on a cliff sitting on a rock overlooking the sea. Below the cliff was a small rocky expanse of a beach. It was here that Naruto found him sitting alone. He went and sat by his side.

"You know why I stopped you?" Naruto broke the silence after a full minute

When no reply came he answered his own question,

"Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let karma deal with the things they do, because hate in your heart will consume you too. It will make you do things that you wouldn't normally do just because. Don't give them the satisfaction of seeing whether the things they said about you are true. You know in your heart that your father is a great man and many other know it too. Don't let what he said get to you."

"I see." Usopp said solemnly. He wasn't still want convinced though because he wanted to sock that butler right across his face. He wanted him to take back what he said but he saw the truth in what Naruto said. He wouldn't do that because he knew what he said held no ground. What did he know about his dad anyways?

Turning, he thanked Naruto and was about to get up but Naruto held his down and put a hand over his mouth.

Usopp was distressed, what was this blonde man going to do him? Then be saw what Naruto was pointing at, Klahadore and a man with dirty blonde hair and wearing a purple coat were walking towards the area below the cliff.

"I see you still haven't gotten around to controlling your powers. "Klahadore told the man in pink dressing.

"I assure you I have them under control."

"Then why did I find you sleeping in the middle of the road. You're attracting attention to yourself when I specifically told you not to."

"I'm sorry, won't happen again." The weird man said sounding a bit ashamed.

"Jango, I must ask you. How are the preparations for the plan going along?"

"They are coming along fine Kuro, by tomorrow morning the Ojou-sama will be dead and you'll be living like a king" Jango told him.

"For me to live like a king you must first hypnotize her and make her sign the will giving her inheritance to me and make it look like that an accident killed her"

"Okay Kuro"

"And raze this village to the ground, let them know the might of Kuro pirates."

Usopp sucked in a breath through gritted teeth. These men were going to kill Kaya. He had to warn her. Naruto had the same thought going through his mind but he knew she wouldn't believe them. She would trust in Klahadore and not them.

They slowly inched away from the cliff and towards the road.

"We have to tell her, she has to know what they are planning." Usopp said wiping the sweat that had formed on his forehead.

"Yes we do, but do you truly believe that she will trust you over him? He has been with her for years taking care of her, being there for her, perfecting his disguise. As it is now he is more trustworthy and loyal that they can't imagine Klahadore betraying them."

"We have to think this through, all we know is that they are going to attack tomorrow morning from sea I guess. We have to base our plan around it."

"Yeah, that's good. You make a plan while I'll warn the villagers." And with that Usopp took off. It seemed that he was stubborn as an oak tree.

Naruto made a clone and made him follow Usopp discreetly while he went back to his friends.

He found them sitting by a fence on the side of the road. Zoro was napping like always. Luffy was talking animatedly with the kids and Nami was sitting lost in thought.

"Yo" Naruto greeted them.

"Naruto where were you?! You know we were just going to look for you." Nami asked getting out of her stupor

"Yeah, uh I was with Usopp. I thought he might need someone to talk to, you know after his dad was insulted." Naruto told her walking towards her. He took a seat by her side

"By the way kids, Usopp told me to tell you guys to go home. Your moms were looking for you or something."

The kids looked confused, why would their mother ask Usopp to spread this message. Their mothers hated Usopp and their involvement with him. But they went home nevertheless as it was already getting late.

After the kids were out of sight, Naruto spoke up again.

"Wake up Zoro, I think all of you need to know this."

After Zoro had woken up Naruto told them what they had overheard. Just as he finished Usopp came running towards them, he was panting from the exhaustion. It looked like he had been shot at, if the wound on his shoulder was anything to go by.

"Guys, I tried I really did but no one would believe me. They said if I was as trustworthy as Klahadore they would have believed me but I'm just a town's liar to them."

"Well there goes our plan A, thankfully I had the mind to construct a plan B. We are going to protect the village from the pirates. I'm not going to force you guys to do this, if you going to help me, do it on your own volition." Naruto told them.

"It's because every life is precious and these are just innocent villagers whose only crime was to trust in Klahadore. I for one am not going to stand by idly as they are slaughtered for one man's ambition. So who' with me?" Naruto asked.

Even though Usopp's legs were quivering in fear he raised his hand. "I know this village doesn't hold me in high regard but this is the village that I was born in. This is my home, the place where my friends live, the place where Kaya lives so I am going to protect this place with my life. How can I call myself a brave warrior of sea if I couldn't protect my home?"

"Atta-boy Usopp."

"You have my strength" Luffy told them.

"And my swords" Zoro added.

"And my….err wooden staff?" Nami said trying to include herself in the conversation.

"Alright I'm proud of you guys for doing this for the village. We may not get the recognition but we'll sleep better knowing what we did." Naruto told them.

"But what about Kaya, won't she be in danger now that Klahadore is at her home now. I tried warning Kaya but Merry, another one of her servants shot me."

"I've already taken care of that matter. Now I could easily take out the pirates but you guys need to grow if you are going to be a formidable crew. But first we need to know your skills."

"I can cut" Zoro said.

"I can steal" Nami added

"I can stretch" Luffy stated.

"I can hide." Usopp said nonchalantly.

"Okay Usopp and Nami-chan aside, only two of you have fighting skills. I know Nami can handle herself against two-three pirates with her staff. Usopp you stay behind and provide long range support.

"So there are two places where they can dock their ships. One is the place where we docked and the other on the south side of here. I think we should split up Luffy and Zoro you take side while me and Nami will take the North. Usopp you will go to Kaya's place and keep an eye on the goings there. If anything or anyone gets past us you will have to take care of them. We'll make sure that it doesn't happen. "

"If the pirates don't land on the either north or south side of the village, the respective team will go and back the other one, anyone have anything else to add?" He asked them

With a collective no, the plan was set in motion. Now they just had to wait for the morning.

 **XxX**

The sun came up over the horizon and thus the day began. Everything was silent as if the Mother Nature was spectating what was going to happen. No birds were singing and no crickets were chirping. The only sound was of the wind cutting through the cliffs on either side of the road.

The sea was void of any vessels traversing through it and Luffy was getting bored. He wanted to fight strong people and test his mettle, Zoro too wanted that. Maybe they should've opted and taken the northern slope where the action was maybe happening. They decided that they had waited enough and they started moving towards the northern slope.

 **(3 hours later)**

Luffy and Zoro arrived to the sight of the slope filled with unconscious pirates tired in bunches. Klahadore or Captain Kuro as he was called by his crew was among them, his face swollen bloody. They had been lost on the way there, with Luffy saying that they should go where it was cold to reach the North Slope and Zoro following his captain. At one point, Luffy lost Zoro so he had to look for him and by the time they got there, they were three hours late and it seemed that the action was over.

Naruto was sitting by a tree while Nami was looking for the treasure on the pirate ship, Usopp was sitting with Kaya who was fussing over his injuries.

"Yo! Nice of you two to join us here" Naruto quipped.

"What happened here?" Zoro asked impressed, "Did you do this alone?"

"Well Nami-chan helped somewhat, what were you guys doing?"

"Well Zoro got lost on the way here so I had to look for him" Luffy said trying to blame him.

Smacking Luffy upside the head, Zoro said "Hey you were the one who was making us lost."

Nami who came back empty handed was observing this, "Anyways you should've seen Naruto fight here, his fight with Buggy was nothing compared to this. His speed, oh man I couldn't even see him. He defeated them within a minute. I didn't even have to do anything. And then when Kuro came and started blitzing from here to there, Naruto just grabbed him out of thin air and punched him so bad that he got knocked out."

"And then another Naruto came with Kaya and Usopp but then after talking with our Naruto here he disappeared in smoke." Nami said unable to hide her excitement.

"Sugoi" Luffy was amazed at hearing this while Zoro was impressed to say the least but they were both confused about the 'other' Naruto part

 **XxX**

After the fight, Kaya had asked them to come over the beach by the mansion the next day to which they complied. They were surprised when she gifted them a caravel-class ship.

"Is this really for us?!" Luffy asked excitedly

"Yes, please accept it." Kaya told him

"The ship's name is Going Merry, it's a caravel-class ship. Let me brief you on the working of the ship. First on how to turn it on and adjust the pow-"

"Ah no no, you just need to tell me how to operate it, it'll go over these guys heads anyways."

"Hey! You calling me stupid Nami-chan?"

"No Naruto, I'm calling you an idiot." Nami said sticking out her tongue playfully.

After that, Usopp came to bid them good bye and said that he was finally ready to commence his journey as a pirate. He said that he would see them soon.

But Luffy asked him, "Why?"

"You're really slow aren't you, now that I'm a pirate we might meet some day out on the sea." Usopp told him matter-of-factly.

"What are you talking about? Get on the ship" Zoro just said to him

"We're already nakama" Luffy added.

Usopp's eyes started to tear up and a bit of snot came out his nose.

"I'm–I'm the captain!" He said jumping up excitedly.

"Hey! I'm the captain." Luffy added jumping down the ship.

Naruto who was watching this heartfelt moment between the friends just made a sad smile, 'Must be nice to have friends'

 **XxX**

 **I know that this chapter was basically canon with Naruto added for little parts but it needed to be done. Now then I've got a question to ask you, should I make Naruto Luffy's nakama and then he'll meet Robin during Alabasta arc or should I let him go on his own adventure after which he will meet her during water-7 arc. Depending on what many people say the story can go either way. And should I add Nami as a love interest? I have no experience writing romance but I can surely try. Have a nice day**


	4. 4 Her Story

**Neither One Piece nor Naruto is owned by me.**

 **XxX**

Naruto had been contemplating on what to do ever since he came to this world, meeting Luffy and his merry band of pirates had served as a good distraction but that was just temporary. He needed to bring peace to a war-torn world and he managed that back in his world by the skin of his teeth, a place where he had bonds. Here he was alone, no Kuramas to give him advice and bicker within themelves. He had only few bonds in this world and one of them was with the little girl he had met twenty years ago.

He wanted to sail with Luffy and fight with Zoro and talk with Nami and have fun with Usopp but his ambition held him back from this, he knew what both Kuramas would have told him, 'Live now, you've already done and suffered enough, enjoy this world' but he knew within his heart that he wouldn't be able to do that. He had promised his sensei that he would find a way so that people could live in a world free of conflict and for better or worse this was his world now. His home away from home. He needed to do that and he couldn't do that as a pirate. The world saw pirates as a menace, they would never heed his words or follow his teachings, while he liked his new friends could he forsake the world for them? He knew the old Naruto would do that in a heartbeat but this one, the one who lived for a century would weigh pros and cons and this time the bad outweighed the good.

But he wouldn't be Naruto if let his new friends alone for his goal, so he came to a compromise. He would place a seal on them that would let him teleport to them in an instant or vice versa. This would make sure that they were safe because just as they believed him to be their nakama, deep down Naruto too believed them to be his new nakama plus friendship with future Pirate King would only increase his chances for end of conflict in this world.

It was ironic really, his world went through Four Great World Wars before they could achieve peace, very few understood that for peace to be there, you had to understand the way world worked. He needed to know the workings of this world before he attempted anything. He could do that by becoming a part of marines but that would restrict his workings or he could forge his own way. After a lot of contemplation he decided that he would become a wanderer like he was, offering his services to those who deserved it.

It was decided then, He would have his own adventure. He would miss Luffy's antics and Zoro and Nami's bickering and Usopp's bold lies.

Now he had to break this news to them, they deserved to know plus he also had to place the seal on them.

Outside Luffy and Usopp were practicing their hand at the canons while Nami was in the dining area with him going over maps and Zoro was napping on one of the chairs

"Hey Nami, we need to talk."

"Yeah?"

"You know when we reach the next isla-"

* **BOOM***

There was a sound of canon firing and then Luffy's cheers could be heard along with Usopp's. They entered the kitchen area and started talking animatedly with each other…loudly.

He continued again, "On the next island where there are ships I wi-"

He was interrupted…again. This time a crash resounded on the deck of the ship and voice could be heard swearing up and down.

They went out to see what that was all about and they saw a tanned man with sunglasses breaking things on the ship and calling them out. Luffy who saw this got enraged, stretched his arms and pulled the man into a wall on the ship. That's when Zoro came out and look of recognition spread across his face, "Hey you! Aren't you Johnny?"

"Who dares to call my name with such disrespe-"

"Zoro-aniki?!"

"What are you doing here destroying our ship?"

"Zo-Zoro-aniki, you're a pirate?!"

"Well I became one recently but that still doesn't answer my question to you"

"Zoro-aniki, It's Yosaku. H-he's dying and I don't know what to do" Johnny broke down.

"Oi-Oi! Settle down, where is he? Get him in here" Zoro said a bit alarmed. Naruto felt badly for him, losing a friend was a depressing thing.

They got the now named Yosaku up on the ship and Johnny started narrating his symptoms, Nami who came down when they brought him up was listening intently. She later announced that he had scurvy and that he needed Vitamin-C rich products to make him better.

"You two-"she said pointing at Luffy and Usopp "go to store room and get lemons, many lemons."

They brought up a barrel of lemons and started squeezing it into Yosaku's mouth. A minute later Yosaku was up and he and Johnny were dancing and chanting "He got better! HE got better!"

"YOU DON'T GET BETTER THAT QUICK" Nami shouted at them.

"Forgive us for not introducing ourselves"

"I'm Johnny"

"And I'm Yosaku"

"And we are pirate hunters!"

And after that Yosaku fell down again, his face pale.

 **XxX**

Yosaku had been laid down in the quarters with the help of Zoro and Naruto. They were in the kitchen eating when Nami reprimanded Luffy for his lack of knowledge on diseases one can suffer on a long sea trip.

"Yes, I agree with Nami-chan, you should add someone with proper dietary knowledge to your crew Luffy" Naruto told him

After a moment of silence, Luffy who was munching on a dry piece of bread announced his intent to add a sea cook to their crew. Everyone agreed with that decision and then they realized the question hanging over their heads, where would they get a sea cook? Thankfully Johnny came to the rescue saying that he knew a place where they could recruit a cook. The place was Baratie, the sea's restaurant.

It was at this time that Naruto decided to announce his decision.

"Now that we are all here, I think we need to talk."

"After we reach the next island, I'm thinking of separating from you guys. I like you guys and think of you as my nakama but….but what I have a dream and it can't be achieved if I become a pirate."

After five minutes of silence Luffy spoke

"I understand" Luffy was surprisingly civil.

Usopp was protesting and Zoro was the one who told Usopp that when a man has a dream, one shouldn't stop them from reaching for it. This calmed down Usopp a bit. Johnny didn't have anything to add because he had just met the guy.

Nami was the one who was hit the hardest though she hid it under a smile. She felt betrayed, she thought that they had a connection, a bond that was forming ever since he saved her from the Superhuman Domingos. Her heart felt constricted for some reason and it hurt, god damn it hurt. She was thinking of telling him her story and was going to ask him for help seeing how strong he was but now he was leaving. She couldn't ask him that now, he was leaving them, never to come back. She didn't want to burden him with that.

She thought he was selfish, focusing on his dream and leaving his friends alone. Now she wasn't even sure if he would have helped her if she asked, after all who was she to him? She excused herself from the meeting and went to her room to vent.

 **XxX**

The next day reached the sea restaurant, as they were nearing it a marine ship came out of nowhere heading in the same direction. A pink haired man with a scar on his face came out on the deck and was facing them

"I've never seen this flag before" said the man "Who is your captain?"

"I'm Luffy "

"I'm Usopp"

"The flag was designed just yesterday" Luffy said

"I was the one who designed the flag" Usopp said.

He laughed, "What kind of crew is this?"

Looking towards Johnny and Yosaku, "I know you guys, don't you claim to be pirate hunters? Looks like you caught some." He laughed at his own joke. Johnny, who was enraged at being made fun of threw down his wanted posters aiming it at the marines face but the wind brought them back to the ship where they scattered on the floor

Just then a blonde woman in a red party dress came out and hugged his arm, "Fullbody-san, let's go eat"

"Yes darling, let's"

As he was going back he told his marine guards "This ship is an eyesore, sink it"

"Yes sir." The marines responded.

They readied their canons and aimed it at Going Merry, Naruto was going to act but Luffy beat him to him, He stretched his hands to both ends of the ship and acting as a slingshot was about to redirect the cannonball but he lost his hold on one end of the ship and the cannonball with its inertia shot towards the sea restaurant where it broke through the roof.

A few chefs came out of the restaurant and dragged Luffy back inside. But Naruto wasn't paying attention to that. He was paying attention at Nami. She was looking intently at the poster of one Arlong. He was a mix between a human and a shark, reminded Naruto of Kisame what with his blue skin and serrated teeth.

Over the years Naruto had mastered the art of body language and so he could read other people using that not that he needed to anyways as he had his emotion sensing ability but he didn't like to use it on friends as it was paramount to reading their minds.

Nami was enraged and scared, her teeth were gritted and was nose flaring. Her body was stiff as a cardboard and her heartbeat was fast, he caught that last part due to his enhanced senses. She was reacting almost murderously to the poster, it seemed that she hated this pirate for some reason

Going over to her side, he put a comforting hand over her shoulder and she tensed a little. HE gave her a comforting smile and she relaxed. Her eyes were watery, almost on the verge of tears.

Naruto was about to say something to comfort her but she excused herself from the deck. Naruto had noticed ever since he announce his intent to go separate ways, Nami had been avoiding him.

 **XxX**

They were inside the restaurant waiting for their food. It turned out the owner of the place had made a deal with Luffy, he would work here for a year and the owner would then forgive him.

Naruto and the others had gotten tired of waiting for him on the ship and had entered the restaurant. They were met with a scene of the marine Fullbody being beaten to shit by one man in a suit and tie. He was a blonde man and from what Naruto could see, his eye brows curled into a spiral.

The man in the suit was stopped by the cooks and another cook who came out of the room started a verbal fight with the man in the suit on how to treat paying customers. Just then a marine came inside an informed Fullbody that the pirate Gin of Don Krieg's crew had escaped and killed nine marines.

Just then Naruto quickly tackled the marine and just as he tackled him, a shot was fired. Fortunately for the marine, Naruto was fast enough to save him form the gunshot. The marine thanked him reluctantly what with being saved by a pirate.

The man named Gin took a seat on of the tables and ordered food. When asked if he had money to pay for it, he pointed his gun at the cook. He was severely beaten by the cook for that while the other patrons cheered him on.

After a few minutes Luffy entered the room wearing a waiter's outfit and started serving them. Zoro cracked a few jokes at his expense which Luffy got enraged at. To make Zoro pay, Luffy picked his nose and dropped his booger in Zoro's glass when he wasn't looking. Nami, Usopp and Naruto were trying to hold themselves from laughing out too loudly so as not to alert Zoro. But it seemed he had caught on what was happening and forced the contents of the glass down luffs throat.

Nami and Usopp were banging the table whilst laughing and Naruto had a serene smile on his face, he would miss these antics and them when he separated.

Just then the man in the suit came back, got on his knees while holding a rose and started admiring Nami's beauty and Luffy told them that this man whose name was Sanji was their new cook.

Luffy and Sanji had a fight amongst themselves with one saying that he is not their cook while Luffy saying that he refuses to accept him as not his cook. Just then the owner came and dragged both of them to kitchen.

It was the afternoon of the fourth day there and Luffy was still working as a waiter, Usopp and Zoro and Nami were inside But Naruto went back to the ship, all that eating had made him drowsy so he went for a nap.

 **XxX**

Naruto woke up and stretched his arms, yawning he got up. That was the best sleep he had in days he thought. Getting outside on the deck, he was expecting it to be still docked in front of Baratie but he was surprised to see that the ship was docked by land. He extended his senses to encompass the ship and found out that he was alone on it.

Did they leave and forgot to wake me up? He thought. Anyways he was getting tired of being on the ship, he needed some solid land under his feet now. He got out of the ship and onto the land. He walked for a few minutes and entered what used to be a town, but the strange thing was that it was deserted of any living things and all the houses were upturned.

"Hey you! Who are you?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, The wandering Sage" Naruto said striking a pose.

The man who questioned him looked like a mix of human and a fish, like the pirate in the poster that Nami had.

"Have you seen a suspicious long nosed boy here?"

Naruto then noticed Usopp hiding inside the rubble, he was motioning to keep his lips pursed and voicing 'shhh'.

"Have I? No I can't say I have, sorry."

"What are you doing here anyways, don't you know Arlong-san has forbidden anyone from coming here."

"Oh has he? I must apologize, I just arrived here, and I didn't know that, I'll leave now." He said turning around.

"Who said you could leave, once you enter this island, you can't leave. Now do you have 100,000 Beli to pay as ransom?" the fishman asked

"Why would I need to pay ransom?" Naruto asked curiously.

"It's because for you to live, you need to pay up. Now do you have money?" he asked getting irritated with this polite human.

"I'm afraid I'm quite broke, what would one do in such a situation?" Naruto asked, curious to know what would happen.

The fishman unhooked the sword strapped to his hip and took a step forward.

"In that case, you…..die!" he said with glee and he charged at Naruto.

Naruto just caught the sword midswing, he applied a little force to the sword and it broke into pieces.

Usopp was amazed at this display. Sure, he had heard about his fight with Kuro from Nami but this hearing about it and seeing it were two different things. It seemed that Naruto wasn't even trying.

Unbeknownst to them, two more people were watching this exchange. The first one was a woman with light blue hair and tanned skin and the other was a short young boy. They were watching in horror and one in glee as the blonde man fought the fishman.

Back to Naruto, he said "Now why would you do that, I believe we were having such a great conversation. Why would you attack me now?"

"Shut up you stinky human, you dare to fight me. I'll show you the might of fishmen."

And then he got into a stance, that resembled a weird tai-jutsu stance back on Naruto's home world and he attempted to punch Naruto in the gut but Naruto dodged that by side stepping and then getting behind the fishman karate chopped him on nape of his neck, effectively driving him unconscious.

As soon as he fell to the ground Usopp came out of the hiding and started dancing around Naruto seemingly happy that the enemy had been taken care of. Just then the two spectators entered the area.

"Awesome! You taught that fishman a lesson." The little boy said

"You shouldn't have done that, now when he gets back up he's going to tell Arlong and Arlong will tear up this island to look for you." The light haired woman said.

"Well he didn't give me a choice, it was either that or get hurt, and I'll almost always chose not to get hurt unless there are other circumstances."

Turning towards Usopp, he asked "Where are the others, I woke up and you were all gone."

"WH-what, you mean to say that you and Nami didn't plan this?!" Usopp asked

"Huh? Plan what?" Naruto asked him back, confused

"You know, after you went inside the ship the after a while Nami followed you and then later Johnny and Yosaku came inside the restaurant saying that Nami had pushed them into the sea and stolen the ship. I thought you and her were in on this."

"What nonsense, I was feeling drowsy so I came to the ship for a nap. I just woke up and came here and then I met the fishman and you" Naruto told him.

"We better make ourselves scarce, we don't want to be here when he wakes up." The woman told them. "Come with me, I know a place where we can lay low."

They followed her outside the village and into the forest. There in the midst of the trees there was a modest house, it felt homely. Surrounding it where tangerine groves with oranges were growing on some of them.

She motioned for them to take a seat.

"You should leave her alone. Let her do what she wants to." Th blue haired woman said.

"I'm sorry, who are you exactly and why should we leave Nami-chan alone?"

"I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself, I'm Nojiko, Nami's sister."

"Well, that answers only one of our questions."

"You should leave her alone, Nami won't like you people meddling in her affairs that's why I'm telling you to leave her alone."

"Ohh you're her sister!" Usopp cried out.

"For better or worse she's my one of my precious people now and even if she herself wanted to she couldn't keep me away from her."

"I wouldn't say that, she's handled herself quite well for years and now she's so close to her dream, please don't meddle in her affairs at this crucial time. I know you defeated that fishman quite easily but Arlong is on whole another level. You won't be match for him and Nami would lose another friend." She pleaded to him.

Naruto wanted to snort at that, even back on his world people would be hard-pressed to find a man that could give him a good fight let alone defeat him and here Nami's sister thought that this 'Arlong' would defeat him. But he couldn't blame her, it seemed that this Arlong had created a deep seated fear towards him. What he did to do that Naruto had no idea but he must have done something horrible.

Naruto thought that he would do Nojiko told him ….for now. If what she said was true, and if it regarded her dream then he thought he would wait until she needed him.

He had a plan in mind.

"I'm going for a walk."

"But there are fishmen out there Naruto, what if they find you?" Usopp asked seemingly concerned.

"Believe me Usopp when I say that they won't find me. Take care and try not to get into any trouble."

-And with that Naruto left the house.

"He's gonna die if he thinks he can defeat Arlong" Nojiko told them.

"I believe in him, he might not look like it but he's really strong. He saved my village from pirates." Usopp told her.

 **XxX**

Naruto first went to the place where he had fought the fishman, fortunately for Naruto's plan he was still knocked out. Biting his thumb with enough force to draw blood, he wrote a blood-seal on the fishman's head. One of the characters was kanji for 'hold'. With a few short hand seals he activated the seal. Then he dragged the fishman into one of the upturned houses and hid him behind some rubble. Now for the next part, he did a quick hand seal and Naruto was the spitting image of the fishman he just hid.

He closed his eyes and a second later they gained orange pigmentations around his eyes. Sensing the place with most chakra signatures, he started walking towards the place. He released the Sennin mode. He could differentiate them because the signatures were on level with academy level students with two-three being genin level and one being chunin level.

He walked for a while and came upon a set of imposing gates, he opened them and entered. Met with a sight that would have made a normal man flinch, Naruto walked forward. There were bodies of unconscious fishmen lying around, some with cuts across their bodies Naruto didn't need to be a detective to figure out that it was all Zoro's work.

He went by the fountain and sat by it, minutes later a human and an octopus hybrid came by and started anguishing over his fallen comrades. When he noticed Naruto henge'd as a fishman he came over to him.

"Mackie who did this?!" he asked Naruto enraged

"I don't know, I just came here now. I was chasing a human but he disappeared on me. So I came by here."

"Whoever did this, I'll make them pay" the octo-hybrid told him with determination burning in his eyes.

Naruto remained silent, after what seemed like an hour of lollygagging for Naruto, Arlong came by seemingly enraged. He got angrier when he saw the situation of his crew. His other crew members that came with him placated him lest he destroy their base in a fit of rage.

Minutes later Nami came by and she talked with Arlong about something, they were whispering so he couldn't hear them properly, so Naruto went and sat near them.

After a while, a group of fishmen came dragging a screaming Usopp, who they tied and set him by the pool that entered the sea.

"So this is one of the fools who followed you here, hoping to get you back." Arlong asked Nami.

She didn't respond, just looked at Usopp.

"Nami, you don't have to do this. You know Luffy and Naruto can help, just come back with us." Usopp pleaded with her.

"You truly are a fool, Nami is the kind of woman who will betray even her family for money." Arlong laughed while telling this to Usopp.

Naruto who was observing this noticed Nami clenching her fist and gritting her teeth, it seemed like she didn't agree with what Arlong said and neither did Naruto for that matter.

"Nami, kill him. Show us your loyalty." Arlong commanded her.

"Gladly" Nami said through her teeth

"Nami don't do this, you're not like this. Please don't do it!" Usopp cried out.

Just as Naruto was about to act though he knew Nami would never kill Usopp these other people would so as he was about to swoop in and escape with Usopp, Usopp dropped a smoke bomb trying to escape. But Just as Naruto relaxed, there was a sound of flesh being stabbed and Usopp was dropped into the pool. He couldn't believe that Nami had done that, she had attacked Usopp. Jumping into the water, he startled the other fishmen. He swam towards where Usopp's dying self should be but found Usopp hastily swimming away. Sensing other fishman following him Naruto grabbed Usopp by his waist and created a rasengan in other hand which he projected into a beam [1] and his speed increased, increased enough that he was able to leave the following fishmen in the dust….or in this case bubbles.

 **XxX**

Naruto and Usopp were on dry land, drying themselves off. When he had brought them onto the land, Usopp was scared of him, the reason being Naruto was still in his disguise. After disengaging the Henge, Usopp calmed down considerably. He explained to Naruto that Nami had stabbed her hand and made it look like as if Usopp had been stabbed.

Naruto wanted to curse himself for doubting Nami, he felt like he betrayed her for some reason. Anyways his cover was blown so he couldn't go to Arlong Park again, not unless he wanted to fight his way through which he didn't have any qualms about.

That's when they saw a flying boat moving at high speed towards them. Naruto grabbed Usopp and they were out of the way in an instant.

The ship went flying over the land and into the forest. They decided to see who it was though Naruto knew only one person capable of such antics.

They found Luffy, the cook Sanji and Yosaku on the broken ship. Just as they were getting out of the ship, Zoro arrived asking them what took so long.

Just as they regrouped, a frantic Johnny came running by

"Nami-aneki killed Usopp-aniki, she stabbed hi-"

Johnny face was horror struck, his mouth agape and his face pale white, it was almost as if he had seen a ghost.

He was looking at Usopp and was trying really hard to form words. "Oi-Oi Usopp is alive" Zoro told Johnny who was still reeling over from the shock.

"You guys should really leave Nami alone" Nojiko called out to them coming out of the forest

"And I already told you that I won't do that." Naruto told her.

Sanji's eyes were love-struck and he started proclaiming about her beauty and his love to her.

"I'll tell you why she is doing what she is doing, but after that you must go."

Luffy and Zoro went away, citing that they didn't find Nami's past interesting. Naruto too wanted to leave but he needed to know why she was with Arlong.

Soon, Nojiko told them about how they were adopted by Bell-mère, and how they lived a happy life until Arlong came. She told them about his demand of 50,000 Beli for children and 100,000 Beli for adults to live every month. How their mother only had 100,000 Beli but chose to sacrifice her life for her children to live freely and how he murdered her in front of her kids.

How he kidnapped Nami after seeing her cartography skills and made her work for him. How Nami made a deal with Arlong that if she gathered 100,000,000 Beli she could buy off Cocoyashi village from him.

At the end of the story Naruto's blood was boiling, how that man could treat human lives as property, to be sold. How could he make them pay for their own lives? How dare he make Nami's life so miserable? In his whole life, this was the second time Naruto truly hated someone for what they had done. First was Sasuke and now this man, Arlong.

He was about to go and make him pay when Nami came by.

"You people should just go, don't you realize that I was just acting to get your treasure. Why are you meddling in my affairs? Just leave, I don't want to see your faces anymore. Arlong is coming to kill you so you better go quickly." Nami told them, it was clear to Naruto that she was on the verge of tears. He wanted to hug her, tell her it'll be okay, and comfort her in any way possible. He couldn't bear to see her so vulnerable but he chose to do nothing. If he meddled in her affairs now, she would just hate him needlessly. He needed her permission to do what he wanted to.

She went ahead towards the village after her monologue. He followed her but when he realized her that she was going back home, he stopped. She needed some time alone he thought.

 **XxX**

There was a sound of a gunshot and Naruto woke up with a start, he didn't realize that he had drifted into sleep. Birds started scattering from the trees and he could hear villagers rushing towards Nami's house. He followed them, there was Nojiko there, bleeding from her stomach but she seemed okay, Nami was nowhere in sight.

"Lay down, I'll heal it" he told her, the villagers were surrounding her. As she laid down, he tore the piece of her t-shirt where the blood had appeared. He brought his palms over her wound and a green glow started being emitted from his hands. First he got the bullet out and then worked on closing the wound, within second the wound was gone, as if it was never there.

She was shocked that her wound had been healed easily, she was sure that it was going to leave a scar.

"What happened here?" he asked.

"That bastard Nezumi, he's a marine under Arlong's paycheck. He came here and started searching the house for illegally stashed money. He said Nami was illegally hoarding money. When he couldn't find anything in the house, he started upturning the tangerine groves. Nami attacked him so he shot at her, but I intervened and took the shot. Nami went to Arlong to talk to him about this. I think Arlong went back on his deal."

"I see" was all what Naruto said.

"Take care of yourself, I'll go look for Nami." Naruto then said.

 **XxX**

As Naruto was walking back to Arlong Park, he met Nami halfway. She looked spent and was crying. She came to a stop when she saw him and turned her head around, seemingly ashamed of herself.

"Nami, talk to me. What happened in there?" He asked gently

"…."

"Nami tell me what happened so I can beat the shit out of him"

"W-why do you ca-care?" she asked between sobs.

"Dammit Nami how can you ask that, of course I care. Believe it or not, you're one of my precious people, my nakama, our nakama. Just as I and your friends would endanger our life for you, I believe you will too. Back where I come from its called The Will of Fire. It's obvious when you saved Usopp at the risk of your cover being blown in front of Arlong. Learn to rely on your friends because I don't know where I would be if not for that handful of friends that kept me going. So say the word and it will be Arlong's downfall. I don't condone violence but that doesn't mean I won't rely on it when necessary"

"Why would you do this for me? I'm just some girl you had the bad luck of meeting"

"Are you wearing earplugs? Did you not hear what I was saying just now, it doesn't matter to me if I just met you or met you a lifetime go. When people need my help to free themselves from their demons I would gladly provide it. I know you live in fear of Arlong, I know what he did to you so please let me free you from your troubles. Believe in me"

"Th-then please help me" she said breaking down in front of him. He gave her a comforting hug and raised her up.

And together they walked towards Arlong Park, towards one fishman's doom.

 **XxX**

 **[1] Naruto used rasengan as a beam to propel himself forward and increase his speed. He did it in Naruto-The Last movie .**

 **I've decided that for the time being, Nami X Naruto will be one-sided on Nami's part. Naruto is too dense in my story to realize what she feels for him, alter on when I get the chance I will try to include her as a main pairing. I'm still on the fence on how Robin should see as Naruto, should he be her love interest or a big brother type guy. Review or PM if you have any ideas. And there is 50% chance that Naruto is going on his own adventure and they will meet again in water seven arc if he has his own adventure. Tell me how you feel about that and accordingly I will alter the story. Thank You for reading.**


	5. Author's Notes 1

**I'm sorry that this is not a chapter but I've set up a poll on my profile page that would help in moving this story ahead because as the story is now, I'm at an impasse. The poll is regarding who should be Naruto's love interest. I'm so confused and the PM's only confused me further as I couldn't keep count of the ones saying they want Nami and some saying they want Robin while some say there should be no pairings at all. Even if you vote no Nami there might be some one sided love on Nami's side.**

 **Please go to my profile page and choose of the options**

 **P.S: It would help me if the story had at least one pairing as love would be a good motivator for Naruto to do things in this story.**

 **I'll try to post another chapter within 48 hours if you all vote and everything goes as planned. I'll keep the poll open for one 24 hours.**

 **Please don't review this A/N**


	6. 5 The Salvation

I do not own Naruto or One Piece.

 **XxX**

As they walked, Naruto's mind was mired in the past. He remembered his childhood with his Kakashi-nii and Jiraiya-jiji. The good times he had spent with his friends, he remembered his first sensei, Asuma and his first C- rank mission. He remembered his first teammates, Ino and Shikamaru. The time when Ino almost died on their first B-rank mission and when he met his clan member Karin. He remembered the chunin exams and the invasion that followed, he remembered within his heart the lives that were lost. He was reminded of their mission to wave, how oppressed the people there were. How Gato worked to rip them of their livelihood. His first kill out of hatred was when he killed Gato, he could count on his single hand when he had felt that kind of overwhelming hatred, first was Gato, second was Orochimaru for what he did to his village and third was Sasuke because he had killed 'her' just to get an rise out of Naruto . And now was the fourth time, and the hatred was directed at Arlong.

He didn't even know the man but he felt so much anger at him, he had singlehandedly enslaved a village, holding them under his thumb and then he had gone back on his word, a deal that his friend had made with him. A deal because of which she was hated by the villagers for the very fact of saving them. A deal because of which she didn't have childhood and for which she toiled every living second of her life. A deal which didn't allow her the luxury of friendship and when she was so close to fulfilling it, he went back on it!

Now Naruto had grown desensitized to killings over his life, he had grown wise over the years, but when it came to his friend's suffering it was like a dam of anger broke inside of him. He couldn't hold back now, his atrocities were too much. In one of the worlds he visited, it was said that when the atrocities of evil men became too much, God himself would incarnate on earth as a human or send one of his angels to cleanse the planet. Naruto now felt as if he was that angel, for the pot of sins of Arlong had been overflowing, now he felt as if he was death himself, destroyer of worlds.

He would show the evil a reason to fear him, he would make a symbol out of himself.

As they reached the looming doors of Arlong Park they noticed two figures sitting there with the swords blocking the way.

"What are you guys doing here?" Naruto asked them

"We heard about Nami-aneki's story so we came to fight Arlong ourselves." Johnny told him

"We got beaten, so we are here to stop people weaker than us to enter here."

"You idiots, how did you think that you could defeat him, even Zoro would have a hard time with him." Naruto told them. "Now move, I've got a man to kill."

"I'm sorry Naruto-aniki, but we think only Luffy-aniki can beat him. I've seen what he can do plus we haven't seen you in action." Yosaku told him

"I'll assure you that I'm perfectly capable of taking Arlong on. Now move"

"We can't do that Naruto-aniki, if you die how will we face Luffy-aniki?" Johnny told him again denying him entry.

Naruto knew that this men meant good but he was losing his patience now, so emitting a small dose of killing intent he again asked them to move.

"Su-sure Naruto-aniki, go rig-right ah-ahead." They both complied with him.

Pushing the door with enough force to blast it off its hinges Naruto entered with Nami meekly following.

Arlong had been eating when the door was blasted off its hinges. Arlong had dispatched the bounty hunters who attacked them with ease. Now he was were interrupted again.

In walked some blonde man and Nami with him. He was wearing an orange overcoat over blue t-shirt with bandages on his arms.

"I thought I told you to go back to collecting money, didn't I Nami?"

"…"

"Go back, this is your last warning. You will never be free, forever mine you will be."

"I refuse to work with someone like you."

"Oh, so you grew a backbone did you?" walking towards her "Let me break it" he said.

Naruto held up his hand, "You won't be doing anything such as that."

"And who are you? Another one of the fools who's following her like a lost puppy."

"The one who's going to end you."

"Shahahaha! You crack funny jokes for a human."

"Laugh all you want, your end is near" Naruto said cryptically

Arlong along with his fishman crew laughed at this. Turning back, Arlong went back to his seat.

"Why should I sully my hands with your blood when one of my men can do this."

"Chew, handle him. Make sure he dies and then teach Nami a lesson, seems like she's in need of one."

Just as the tall fishman was walking towards Naruto a voice was heard

" **Kayaku Boshi (Gunpowder Star)** " a projectile came flying from outside the door and hit the fishman Chew right in the face and created a small explosion around his face.

"Captain Usopp is here to save the day!" Usopp said with confidence though his legs were shaking intensively.

"Kuroobi, you take care of the blonde man. I'll kill the one who dared attack me." And with that Chew went after Usopp. Though before he could get past Naruto, Naruto caught him by clothes.

"I believe I'm your opponent."

"Oh please, like we need more than one person to deal with you pewman"

"Suit yourself" Turning towards Usopp he asked, "Can you take care of him?"

"Of-of course, WH-who do yo-you th-think I am? Usopp said stuttering.

"Okay give him hell Usopp" he said giving Usopp a thumbs-up.

Usopp hightailed out of there with Chew in pursuit,

Naruto faced Kuroobi, he looked like a hybrid between human and a sting-ray. He got into a weird taijutsu stance, facing Naruto.

"You're only going to get one chance so make it count."

"Don't act all high and might you human, I'll show you the might of fishman karate."

Rushing forward, to the normal eye he disappeared, but to Naruto he was moving in slow motion.

He attacked with his fist aimed at Naruto's gut which he dodged by hand standing using his head as a base, effectively getting behind him. He then punched Kuroobi in the back of his head which sent him flying into a wall, breaking it, and then flying ahead right into the Zoro who had just arrived on the scene.

"Oi mind where you send your opponents flyin,will you." Zoro called out.

Arlong and his men were shocked because after Arlong, Kuroobi was the strongest here and this man had sent him flying with one punch.

The fishman who Naruto had met when he was disguised as Mackie approached him,

"I'll be your opponent, you won't last in front of my Rokutoryu." Hatchan called out

"Ooh a swordsman, Naruto I'll fight him" Zoro told Naruto as he dusted off his clothes and approached them.

"Be my guest Zoro."

Naruto said as he walked back to Nami

"Are you sure Naruto? Zoro was injured before he came here." Nami asked him.

"I'm sure Zoro will be fine Nami-chan, after all he is our nakama. And if worse get to worse I'll intervene."

But Naruto didn't need to intervene, within minutes Hatchan was down and Zoro came out of the fight only with some scratches.

"Now Arlong do you see how helpless your cause is, you are destined to lose either by my hands or my friends, It's because of your arrogance is this your downfall."

"Shahahaha! You defeated one of my crewmates and expect me to cower in fear. The difference between their strength and mine is too big. I'll show you the true strength of fishmen now boy."

Arlong got up from his chair.

"I'll give you five shots at me, we'll see if you can land even one. You see little boy, Nami is mine, she is mine to take and mine to use as I see fit. You'll never be able to use her as well as I can."

Hearing the constant use of word 'use' made Naruto grit his teeth.

Walking towards Arlong, Naruto started saying, "You know your problem, you thinks she is a property to be used, the reason she doesn't belong with you is…" Naruto threw a right hook across his face which sent him flying towards the pool. Disappearing from his position, As Arlong's body slowed down Naruto appeared below him, standing on water. Hitting him with a swift upper kick to the gut which sent him in the vertical direction he said, "…BECAUSE NAMI..." again disappearing and reappearing just behind him "…IS OUR PRECIOUS…" the bandages on his arms started unfurling and began to attach themselves to Arlong. When they had been fully attached he pile-drived Arlong with his head positioned below. He lastly said "…NAKAMA." and they went rotating towards the water with Arlong's face set to take the brunt of the force when they touched water.

The pair hit the water with extreme force splashing the nearby Zoro and Hatchan from the impact. As the water cascaded back down from the splash Naruto emerged walking towards the building walking on water oblivious to everybody's shocked stares he assumed he had put the fishman down from the impact. He had underestimated the fishman's resilience.

Years of combat experience had granted Naruto a danger sense-so as speak and now it was tingling, quickly turning around he found Arlong flying towards him out of water with his nose aimed at Naruto's heart.

"Shark on Darts" he yelled as he flew towards him.

Naruto for his part, got over his shock and ducked leading Arlong to pierce the concrete wall, he was stuck there though. Intending on finishing this fight once and for all and destroy Arlong's symbol of enslavement; the Park.

It took only a moment and Naruto's eyes had become golden with horizontal pupils. He raised his hand above his head and formed a fist, that's when it happened. Golden Particles started to shimmer and form in the air, taking the shape of a big fist, big enough to easily crush the building. Naruto spread out his fingers and closed them again into a fist, the golden hand mimicked the movement.

Naruto could feel the familiar presence of all the Straw-Hat pirates sans Sanji and Luffy, the villagers were watching, it seemed Usopp had come back. Arlong had managed to free himself and was now looking where everybody was pointing and murmuring at, the golden fist.

For the first time in his life, Arlong felt fear.

Shouting out **'Tenmei' (Heaven's Decree) [1],** Naruto bought his fist down and like God himself was with him, the golden fist came down with it. It came down on the building, crashing it to the ground. It smashed Arlong along with it. The story when told to future generation would be twisted as God himself smashed Arlong Park with his fist.

 **XxX**

 **(Not so far away)**

Luffy and Sanji had been going towards Arlong Park from Nami's house when they heard a crashing sound, they started running towards there.

 **XxX**

Naruto stood in front of rubble, waiting to see if Arlong would rise again. Truth be told, this was the first time he had used this technique ever since discovering his ability to form Sage Dust [2].

The atmosphere was silent for moments than slowly but surely peoples voices could be heard, whispers at first then full on shouts of joy. When Naruto turned around, Nami was crying tears of joy. The Straw-Hats joined in the cheering of Zoro who defeated Hatchan, of Usopp who defeated Chew and last but not the least Naruto who defeated Arlong.

He walked towards the villagers, who were embroiled in happiness and past them. He walked past the straw hats and towards the ship. This was his first kill in a century, while he was mostly averse to violence these days, today he used it wholeheartedly. He had felt his inhibitions being broken, he felt more blood thirsty when he attacked Arlong, more out of control. He didn't trust himself around his friends right now, at least not right this moment so he walked to find some solitude.

Times like this he missed both Kuramas the most, he missed their advice however sarcastic it might have sounded sometimes. Maybe he should pay the Bijus a visit, see if they would like to come here with not that he needed there help but at least he wouldn't be alone on this adventure then.

He went back into the forest intending to be alone for a while, he had decided that he would on Next Island start his next adventure, he had intended it now but he wanted to spend some more time with them. Unaware of the party that had started in Cocoyashi and surrounding villages, Naruto drifted off into sleep. He seemed to do that a lot nowadays.

 **XxX**

Nezumi had, after Arlong's defeat went to the now destroyed Arlong Park to confiscate Arlong's treasure and cash in his bounty but had been beaten back by that Straw Hat boy and that orange haired girl, what was her name…Nami, yes Nami. His cash cow had been defeated and now he had been embarrassed in front of his subordinates. He intended to make them pay, especially the Straw Hat boy, Monkey D. Luffy. The defeat of Arlong would put a considerable dent on his income.

"Set up a call to Headquarters." He commanded one of his marines.

"Yes sir"

XxX

 **(Marine Headquarters)**

Brandnew was a tall, tanned man with dark-green curly hair, sideburns pointing upwards and large lips. His eyes were always obscured by a pair of sunglasses, he was sporting a marine white overcoat with yellow Epaulets on his shoulders. It signified his position as commodore, even though he was a low ranking officer, he had quite an authority in the headquarters. He was the one who set bounties on pirates.

"Purupurupuru purupurupuru Purupurupuru purupurupuru"

"Someone pick up the damn den-den mushi

"Yes sir"

"Kacha"

"Mushi mushi, I need to speak to commodore Brandnew." The voice from the den-den mushi said.

"I'm here, speak" Brandnew commanded

"Sir, I'm Nezumi. Captain of 16th branch, East blue. I would request you to set a high bounty on one person, Monkey D. Luffy. He singlehandedly defeated and destroyed Arlong Park and then attacked me and my subordinates. Before this he alone made a marine ship sink that had come to help the villagers after receiving the " he exaggerated Luffy's crimes, putting Arlong's blame on Luffy.

"I'm sending you a photo of his that our photographer took."

"Acknowledged" he said putting down the phone.

"Sir the photo captain Nezumi said he sent has arrived." One of the marines stated

"Good, set the bounty at…hmmm… 30,000,000 Beli. That should put him on notorious list." Brandnew called out.

'Anyone brazen enough to attack the absolute justice that marines represent should be termed a dangerous man' he thought.

 **XxX**

When Nezumi got the preview of the wanted poster he couldn't stop himself from laughing

"Chichichichichi, now that boy will know not to raise his hands against his betters."

 **XxX**

By the time Naruto got back to the town, everyone were passed out on the ground, walking through the river of unconscious people, Naruto went and got himself a drink. He could see that they had partied hard. Getting a drink, he sat by a sleeping Luffy.

"You know I'm gonna miss you guys but I'm sure we'll meet again someday."

"…"

"Argh! What am I gonna do?! I don't even know where to start."

"Niku!" Luffy said with drool running down his face. It seemed even in dreamland he thought of meat.

Naruto wondered if he talked about ramen in his sleep, though knowing him he probably did.

Naruto sensed someone approaching him.

It was Nami, she was in a low cut dark pink top and denim shorts. She came and sat by his side.

"So you're really going to leave us?" she sounded despondent.

"Yeah but it's not like I'm going away for good, we'll meet again you'll see."

"I'll miss you, I would rather you didn't leave us. Come with us, we'll have many adventures and lots of fun." Nami tried to convince him.

"Believe me in an ideal world I would have been with you guys in a heartbeat but this is not an ideal world and I once promised my godfather that I would bring an end to conflict."

"Well can't you do that as a pirate?" she asked innocently cocking her head to right.

"Tell you what, after I feel I know about this world enough, I'll join you guys. How does that sound?" Naruto asked her.

"Really?!" she asked proud of herself on convincing Naruto to join the gang

"Really." He said.

"But-but how will you get to us, it'll take a long time to reach us if you're not already with us?" she asked

"I was getting to that, hold out your right arm." He told her. "Got a tattoo eh?" he commented after seeing her new tattoo, it was a cross between a pinwheel and an orange.

"Yeah, I wanted nothing to do with Arlong so I asked doctor to modify it."

"Looks nice on you" he complimented

"Th-thanks" she mumbled it out.

Just below the tattoo, Naruto touched her arm and she felt a stinging sensation like needles pricking her skin. After a moment it was over and there were a set of indecipherable kanji written on her arm, it was in conjunction with her tattoo.

"That will allow me to find you wherever you are, and reach you almost instantaneously. Though it's in a development stage so I can only use it once and then it will disappear. I'll know when you are in danger or distress. So I'll come to your aid when needed, it's a promise of a lifetime."

She seemed happy then, leaning over she gave him a kiss on his whiskered cheek, leaving him flushing red. Though whether it was because of the sake or because of the kiss, no one would ever now.

"Wh-what was that for?" he asked flustered.

"That, that was being there when I needed someone the most." and with that she left, swaying her hips not that Naruto noticed. He was now back to thinking about his goal, he couldn't sleep that night

 **XxX**

It was the morning after and most of the people were hungover, sans Zoro, Nami and Naruto. After receiving many thanks from the villagers and several propositions from girls, Naruto and the Mugiwara pirates had boarded the ship. The money that Nami has collected over the years along with Arlong's bounty had been given over to Genzo, the leader of Cocoyashi village so that he could use the money help rehabilitate the village.

Naruto was on the ship, waiting for the others to board it. Once everybody was on the ship they began to bid their good-byes to the villagers.

Everyone trickled inside the dining room after the ship had set sail.

"Now would be a good time to set sail to grand line." Nami said getting everybody's attention.

"No, we need to get some meat first and I want to see that place."

"I agree with captain Nami-chwan, as the cook of the ship it's my duty to ensure that we are properly stocked." Sanji said.

"What place are you talking about Luffy?" Naruto asked curiously

"The place where he, Gold Roger was born. Loguetown" Luffy said with unusual seriousness

"Oh, that suits my needs too, maybe I'll find a ship to board there."

"Do you really have to go through?" Usopp asked

"Yes Usopp, I have to see the world but as I promised Nami, I will come join you guys once I know enough." He reassured Usopp.

 **XxX**

 **(Logue Town)**

Captain smoker was a young man with white hair who always seemed to have a cigar in his mouth. He admired fleet admiral Sengoku for his absolute justice but he didn't follow it, he followed his own code of justice. Smoker was the head of marines stationed in Logue town. He had chosen this place because was hub for pirates who wanted to enter Grand Line. Here he sat traps for them and captured them. East Blue was one of the safest places in the world with the least amount of strong pirates.

Today was a good day, he had captured three pirate crews without any hitch.

"Smoker-taichou, the new bounties have arrived. Should I bring them here or post it directly on notice board."

"Bring it here, I'll see to it myself." Smoker ordered.

"Ha-hai."

After a moment, the marine brought a bunch of wanted posters. He went through them till his eyes fell on one poster, the bounty was 30,000,000 Beli and the picture was of a laughing boy with a straw hat. He had the highest bounty currently in East Blue.

He looked over it for a second and then went back to riffling thought the posters.

After a while he got bored of sitting in the room and went out for a walk.

Walking outside, he bumped into a girl who was eating ice-cream, the bump resulted in the ice-cream being smeared all across his pants. He stared at his pants then at the girl and then again at the pants and at the girl again.

Just as it seemed that he was going to explode on the girl, he bent down to her level and the girl flinched. "You should be careful where you walk child, instead of me it might have been an unsavoury pirate." The girl looked like she was about to cry. "Here, have another ice-cream on me" he said handing her some money. She smiled at this and ran away.

In the crowd one blonde man thought 'Maybe not all marines are bad.'

 **XxX**

( **Three Hours Ago)**

 **Going Merry**

"Tag, you're it" Luffy laughed out as he tagged Naruto.

"Luffy how many times must I tell you I'm not playing tag with you and Usopp?"

"Come on it's your last day with us, at least enjoy it." Usopp called out as he ran away from Naruto.

"Okay, I'll bite. Ready or not, here I come." And he started giving a chase to Luffy. He was chasing them at playful peed because if he used his normal speed this game would be over in a second.

Nami was watching them, enjoying the time.

"Nami-chwaaan, I brought you iced tea to drink." Sanji said in a sing song voice.

"Thankyou Sanji-kun" Nami said as she took the cup from the tray.

"You bastards, come here and get your drinks." He called out to the boys playing tag, his demeanour changed.

"Thanks Sanji, I was getting thirsty from all the running." Naruto told him.

Sanji didn't reply, he was busy ogling at Nami, Naruto smiled. Sanji reminded him of a more gentlemanly Jiraiya.

They sat there drinking tea while Naruto explained to them the usefulness of the seal he had placed in Nami. Everybody was amazed that such a technique existed, and wanted to learn more but Naruto told them later.

They had arrived at Logue town and decided to split up and get necessary things back to the ship. Sanji volunteered to take Nami but she had already decided to go with Naruto buy them and him a Den-Den Mushi so they could keep in contact. Sanji seemed depressed at hearing that with a dark cloud hanging over his head while he was drawing circles in the dirt with his fingers, "What's so good about him?" he seemed to be mumbling again and again.

After they had split up, Nami fist took him to the communications centre and bought themselves a Den-Den Mushi. She then tuned theirs and his to the same frequency and told him to take care of it.

Then she dragged him to a clothes shop and made him sit and watch as she tried on different clothes.

"Nami-chan, I think you've had enough of clothes. Let's go eat something." He said as his stomach growled.

"Okay, after this one, this is the last I promise." Nami told him

 **(30 minutes later)**

Naruto dragged himself out of the shop with his hands, he had been spent after two hours watching Nami try out clothes. They were walking towards one of the many cafés littered on the sides of the road. While going there they witnessed a heart-warming scene of a marine giving a girl whose ice cream had been spilled some money.

The name of the café was Café Coffee Day, they took a seat and ordered a sandwich and coffee.

"So Naruto, what's the plan now? What are you going to do now after we leave?"

"Well, I was thinking of staying in this town for a while, then going to grand line maybe or visiting another one of the seas. It's not all planned yet." Naruto told her.

"We'll miss you, I think Usopp will miss you the most."

'I will miss you guys too, mostly Luffy and his antics."

The way Nami's nose scrunched up, it seemed she was expecting another answer.

"People who play with a girl's heart should be kicked by a donkey and die." She mumbled.

Naruto who heard the last part said," I agree."

"Baka" she called him.

"Huh? What I did, I just agreed with you!"

Just as Naruto was about to speak, he sensed a large chakra signature arrive on the island. It could easily rival that of a Kage's and just as he arrived on the island a freak storm approached the island, the wind started howling rapidly and rain showers started.

"Nami, get back to the ship and wait for everyone." The seriousness in his voice made him comply.

She nodded and quickly went away, Naruto discreetly sent a shadow clone to help her if needed.

He started walking towards the source of the energy, never minding the storm. He looked like a badass with the wind blowing against him and his cloak billowing in the storm. The source was moving around and it stopped. Naruto reached the position, he saw Luffy being pinned down by the same marine he saw earlier that day. White smoke was coming out of his body. He was about to knock Luffy out and just as Naruto was about to intervene, a figure hooded in green cloak arrived holding the marine's hand. And then a wild gust of wind blew and the marine was knocked around. This gave Luffy the chance to escape, looking at Naruto who appeared right in front of him, he gave him a thumbs-up and received one in return.

Lightning flashed and Naruto saw the face of the hooded figure, it had a tribal tattoo on the left side of face in red ink.

In the next flash of lightning the man in hood disappeared after giving Naruto a confident grin.

Naruto followed him until they were on the coast of the island.

"Hey! Why did you help Luffy out?" Naruto asked

"Who am I to deny a man his destiny." The hooded man said cryptically though he was surprised that Naruto could keep up with him.

"Who are you anyways and why do you feel so much like Luffy?!"

"Huh! I'm Monkey D. Dragon and he is my son." Said the man.

Naruto was surprised that Luffy was his son, he pegged Luffy's father to be as carefree as his son but he was not what he expected, but it was too early to judge.

"And pray tell me who are you" the hooded man asked.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the man who will bring peace" Naruto said confidently.

The man's grin stretched impossibly wide, "Interesting, I believe we may have something in common Uzumaki-san. I have a proposition for you. Interested?"

-And with another flash of lightning, they both disappeared.

 **XxX**

 **1\. Tenmei (Heaven's Decree) is a move I borrowed from author Dreaming of the Moon. This move is used in his story Hero or Monster. It's a really good read if you like seriously OP Naruto. HE writes Naruto beautifully!**

 **2\. Sage Dust Techniques are techniques based on use of sage dust. Over the century that he lived, the nature has seemed to accept Naruto which granted him really advance manipulation of Natural Energy. He can create concentration of natural energy to such a level that it takes a physical appearance in the form of golden sage dust. Naruto can manipulate this dust into constructs and more on that later. I've got the authors permission to use this concept. Expect many other techniques based on this.**

 **I know that the ending was really lame but please bear with me. As you can see on my profile page, the poll has been closed and the result was that majority wants both Robin and Nami as love interests. Now I am no expert in writing romance but I'll try my best, I'll just have to channel my inner-romance expert.**

 **This story has been beta reviewed by Lightningblade49.**

 **Now what will happen? Will Naruto join the Revolutionary army or will he decline the proposal? To know, tune in to next chapter of Dragon ba- * ehrm* A New World – The Tale of a Wandering Sage.**


	7. 6 A New Adventure

**Neither One Piece nor Naruto are owned by me. They belong to Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto respectively.**

 **XxX**

 _"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the man who will bring peace" Naruto said confidently._

 _The man's grin stretched impossibly wide, "Interesting, I believe we may have something in common Uzumaki-san. I have a proposition for you. Interested?"_

 _-And with another flash of lightning, they both disappeared._

 **XxX**

The man was fast, as fast as 'A' though he didn't have anything on Naruto. They appeared on a nearby cliff under a large oak tree, safe from the rains.

"So, why do you have a proposition for me?" Naruto asked.

"Well I believe that a man with your morals would find what we do interesting. You see my spies have reported to me of your feats. You singlehandedly defeated a notorious pirate and destroyed his base all for what? Because you believed that what he was doing was atrocious. We heard you did the same to another pirate called Buggy. We have need of people with moral compasses like yours." Dragon told him, his grin never leaving the face.

"Well I didn't do it just because of my views towards the world, I did it for my friend too, and she needed it." Naruto told him, "What do you do anyways?" he further asked.

"I am the part of an organization that seeks to overthrow the World Government." He simply said as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Huh?! And you expect me to help you. Take away the only semblance of peace this world might have. Why would I do that?" Naruto asked sceptically.

"You could help me, if not now then in future. When you will see the true face of the World government, you will help us." He said cryptically yet again.

"Wait, what do you mean true face of the World Government? And stop talking so cryptically, Explain to me what you mean and I might just help you." Naruto sort of commanded him.

Dragon was taken aback by this tone, that tone was that of an experienced leader and made him want to comply with him, but he held his ground

"Tell me what you know about the World Government." He asked him

"Hmm…well they are the government that keeps peace of the world. They help keep law and order I guess." Naruto said as putting a hand under his chin

"So naïve, so innocent. Once I was the same, believed the world to be black and white. Believed the marines were good, the world government our ally. Then I came out of my little shell that I had created. Saw the injustice done to people by World Government, saw its ignorance to anything not affecting their image. Saw them on Baterilla trying to kill an innocent unborn baby just because his father was a pirate. They massacred a whole island just because a group was researching their past. Destroyed the whole island, only one soul managed to escape and she was an eight year old kid. They made her life a living hell, what more do you need to know about the world government's atrocities against the innocent?" Dragon finished talking.

For a full minute there was silence, Naruto was mulling over the things he heard, then he spoke

"Well, all that sounds bad but as you said, the world isn't all black and white." Giving Dragon a stern look he criticized, "Look, I don't know you. Perhaps you will be correct about the world government being corrupt. But I sense you're no saint either."

Continuing he divulged,

"Back where I came from, there was an organization whose goal was world domination but even then, some people were there just because they were misled, hell the whole organization existed because someone twisted its goal of peace into that of world domination. So what I am saying is I'm not ready to accept an organization as evil just because you say so. I'll see for myself how bad it really is and then decide whether to help you or find my own path." Naruto finished talking.

"Hmm…so be it. See for yourself but marks my words that you should come to me when you realize how misguide your attempt was." He said matter of factly as lightning flashed ominously behind him darkening his face

"Fine, I will. I'll see what happens as I journey these oceans, who knows perhaps you'll be right, in every organisation there is darkness after all, and I know that from experience." Naruto sighed.

"What do you mean you know from experience? Where exactly are you from? What is this organization you keep talking about? Why do I not know about it?" Dragon blurted.

Monkey D. Dragon was a calm and patient man, but this boy in front of him was an enigma. HE came out of nowhere one day and was now acting like a war veteran. He had the aura of a leader and a commander was only a kid. All this things combined made him loose his cool, what was this organization he was talking about?

"It's doesn't concern you, not yet" Naruto concluded.

"Now, the question that remains is how you will get into contact with us, if your travels lead you to the same answer as the one I have reached, then you'll need a way to reach us. How will you do that?

"I know!" he said as he rummaged under his cloak, he pulled out a tri-pronged kunai out of his pocket. "Keep this somewhere in your base, safe and don't scratch those seals. Basically don't try to have it analysed, you would regret it. It will allow me to get to you quite quickly." Naruto told him.

"Ohk" he said sceptically but kept it nevertheless.

"So what's the plan now kid?" Dragon asked Naruto.

"I am thinking of joining the marines, I've already seen one side of the world with pirates, might as well do some of that with marines. I'm thinking of joining that smoky marine's group. Let's hope he didn't see me give Luffy the thumbs-up."

"Well, all the best. You chose quite a nice captain though. From what I hear Smoker is a good man, has his own sense of justice, in a good way I must say." Dragon told him as he picked his ear.

"Well, from what I saw he was unlike any other marines I saw. Mind you I've only seen one marine and he was quite corrupt." Naruto said solemnly.

"Well Kozo, I must go. It was nice talking with you, I'm looking forward to working with you in future." And he disappeared with the next flash of lightning. Naruto didn't gave him chase this time.

He went back to the town, the storm was receding.

Citizens of the city were doing their best to overcome the damage the storm had caused. You could see people helping other people. A little kid crying because he couldn't find his parents and then a woman consoling him. Another man giving the kid some fruits from his fruit stand. A few other people helping a man trapped under a collapsed roof. Naruto went over there to help them, mustering their strength, they managed to lift the roof enough for the man to escape. Naruto could've done it singlehandedly but he didn't want to attract attention.

He saw a woman searching for something on the floor, glasses they were. He picked them up and went over to her, "Here." He handed them to her. She was wearing a colourful shirt with a waist length blue leather coat.

"Thanks, thanks for helping me." She made her gratitude known

"'Twas nothing, fair lady." Naruto said chivalrously which was very unlike him.

She giggled at his, Kami knew what was with people with glasses finding his jokes funny?

'I'm Tashigi" she curtsied and said, playing along with his joke.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, man who wants to join the fair knights of the sea." Naruto continued

"Oh, you want to join the marines?!"

"Yeah, I was thinking of joining them but I don't know where to start. By any chance do you know where I can join them?" Naruto asked

"Well you're in luck, I'm the master chief petty officer of the base here." Tashigi said proudly.

"Wow! That sounds pettily important position."

"Well, it's the thirteenth highest rank in marines. It's pretty boring here though, but I heard Smoker-taichou say that we are sailing to grand line in a few days' time." She told him.

"Sooo….what do I have to do to join marines, I don't want some boring position like chore boy or something." Naruto told her.

"There will be a physical fitness test and if you pass, you can take a combat test after which captain will determine your position. Don't worry I'll put in a good word for you though I doubt he will be partial towards you." Tashigi gave him the information.

"Oh I see, so when can I take the test?" he asked

"It's quite late now so tomorrow morning would be best, meet me here again tomorrow at nine and I'll take you to the office." She said.

"Thanks Tashigi-san"

"It's the least I could do for helping me in this storm."

 **XxX**

Naruto had met Tashigi the next day and passed both the tests with flying colours. After an additional aptitude test, Naruto had been given the position of Chief Petty Officer under the command of Tashigi and Smoker. Tashigi and Smoker and a few other marines were to set sail for grand line in a day's time. Since Naruto was a new recruit, he wasn't allowed in grand line until they deemed him ready enough to face the perils of grand line.

Naruto had been given a uniform but he chose to wear his own clothes with the sage coat with marine cap on his head.

He was bored for the day and would be until they set sail. Looking for something fun to do, he went to explore the island.

His marine cap gave him recognition everywhere he went, people would smile at him and little kids would wave at him. This felt nice, it reminded him of how people would treat him back home.

He was walking through the seedier part of town when he heard what sounded like a little girl screaming.

Naruto immediately followed after the voice, there were two gruff looking men dragging a blonde little girl into a nearby warehouse.

"Unhand me you filth, when papa finds out about this he will kill you."

"Stop acting like an Ojou-sama brat, we are doing this because your father captured our friend. We will have our revenge." The man with a cross shaped scar on his chin said.

"Hey! Leave the girl alone." Naruto shouted at them.

Noticing him the two men visibly stiffened. Turning back to look at him, they relaxed. It's only one marine they thought. He wouldn't be a match for them, after all they had bounties of 13 and 14 million respectively, and oh how wrong they were.

Taking out a knife and placing it against the girl's throat, they warned him, "Marine, don't come any closer. We'll spill her blood if you do."

Naruto backed down a little, then the one with blue hair asked the scarred man, "What if he calls for backup? We should deal with him before that."

"You're right deal with him." The scarred man told his partner.

"Why should I do sully my hands with a measly marine, you deal with him. I'll take good care of the brat." He said emphasizing good.

Whilst they were fighting amongst them, Naruto had approached them. Within the span of time it took for both of them to blink, they were on the ground, knocked out on the ground courtesy of Naruto's fists meeting their guts with force.

The little girl had been on the verge of crying after the pirate pulled out knife was looking at Naruto with amazement.

"You okay little girl?" he asked her. Truth be told she looked like one of the Ojou-samas he had the luck of escorting. She was blonde with blue eyes, she had a dark green ribbon on top of her head and was wearing a light green dress.

"What's your name?" Tried asking her to calm her down because she was in hysterics.

"Look I might not look like it but I'm a marine, so it's okay to tell me your name."

"Ca-carol, its Carol." she mumbled.

"I want my papa!" she demanded from him taking a 180 degree turn changing her demeanour

After scratching the back of his head unsurely about regarding what protocol dictated he decided to look for her papa.

"Hai-hai, we'll look for your papa but first let's report these men responsible for kidnapping you back to the base, then we'll look for your papa. Okay?" Naruto asked gently.

"Okay" she agreeing chirping.

He held out his hand to her which she grabbed, and they walked hand in hand. They almost passed for siblings if not for Naruto's one raven coloured eye. He even got her an ice-cream

"So do you have any idea why they kidnapped you?" Naruto inquired.

"I don't know, I guess papa captured their friend and they wanted revenge because of that." She confessed.

"Is your dad a marine too?" Naruto queried.

"No, well papa was a marine sniper before but he left. Now he is a bounty hunter."

"What were you doing when they took you?" Naruto asked as he looked around.

"I was looking for goggles for papa, since papa gave the one I picked for him before to a long-nosed pirate boy."

"Oh, by any chance his name was Usopp?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yes! How did you know?" She asked surprised.

"Well he is my friend you see-" that's when Naruto realised his blunder. He had just admitted that a pirate was his friend. Before he could think of anything, Carol asked.

"But aren't you a marine? How can you be friend with a pirate?"

"Well before I decided to be a marine, I met them and we had adventures together. So that's how he became my friend. Could you do me a favour? Can you not tell anyone about this? I could probably get in trouble for having a pirate friend." Naruto asked of her

"Sure, you saved me so that's the least I can do, right?" Carol assured him

As they were walking towards marine base, he was spotted by Tashigi.

Coming over to them, she spotted Carol and was confused. Why was Naruto holding a kids hand while she was eating ice cream?

"Hey Naruto, who is she? Your sister?" Tashigi asked.

He laughed and replied "No Tashigi-san, she was being kidnapped by pirates and I walked in on them so I helped her out. By the way could you send some marines to get the two pirates I tied up there, they are at the warehouse buy east coast."

"Su-sure" said unsurely, pulling out a mini Den-Den Mushi from her pocket she asked some marines to take care of them.

"Where are you taking her Naruto?" she asked.

"Well now that I've reported those men, I guess I'll help her look for her father." He told her.

"Can I help, I just finished my packing for tomorrow's journey." She offered.

"Sure, the more the merrier I guess." He said.

As they were walking around, Naruto asked her fathers' name.

"Edward, papa's name is Edward Masterson." She said as she licked her ice cream.

"Masterson…..where have I heard that." She mumbled.

"You know of her father?" Naruto asked.

"No…but I've heard that name somewhere.

It was afternoon now and all of them were famished so they chose to eat in a nearby café, it was the same chain of cafés Naruto and Nami had eaten at.

An old lady waitress came by to take their order. Her hair were grey but she looked beautiful in a mature way.

"What would be your orders?"

"I'll have a two sandwiches and a tea." Naruto gave his order.

"I'll have one of those, she said pointing at the board cut out for special in-house burger" Carol said politely.

"I'll have the same a Naruto but only one sandwich." Tashigi ordered.

"I'll have it here in a moment" the waitress told them as she moved towards the kitchen.

"So Tashigi-san, aren't you excited about going to grand line? " Naruto asked her

"Yes I am. I want to go to Wano Kuni. It's the land of swordsmen I want to see how they live. I'm so excited." She squealed like a little kid in a candy shop.

"So you're a swordswoman?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Yes, I aim to be the best and my dream is to collect all the Meito (named swords) from people who would use them for selfish purposes." She fiercely said, determination shining within her eyes.

"Oh! You have my support then, not many woman dream so big nowadays. I too have a friend who aims to be the best swordsman alive. I think you two would hit it off." Naruto told her.

Tashigi didn't know how she felt about Naruto now, well she was grateful to him for helping her during the storm, she thought of him as a Good Samaritan. But now he said he would support her, aside from Smoker-taichou, not many people said that to her. Mostly they looked down upon her for being a swordswoman. Now maybe she could see him as a friend, a friend that she won't have time to spend with as she was going away to grand line she realized

"Oh…what's his name? Your swordsman friend's I mean." She asked curious

"Oh his name is Zo- I mean Gekko, Hayate Gekko. "He said successfully saving himself. 'Safe!' thought Naruto.

"Here you are." The waitress who had returned with the orders said to them.

"Thanks" all three of them thanked her

Naruto was drinking his tea when the waitress said, "Such a nice family you are. Most costumers are rude here."

Naruto spitted out the tea while Tashigi choked on it they were drinking, blubbering, "N-no, w-we are not a fami-family." Naruto told the waitress while Tashigi nodded feverously.

"Oh!" she the lady as she held her hand over her mouth, "Not yet married and already a daughter. My! How scandalous. Ah! young love."

Naruto who had calmed down again started blubbering, "We're not…She's not….we're not like that. We are looking for her father, she's lost." He said hoping she would stop making the situation any worse while Tashigi once again nervously nodded.

"I know that silly, I know Carol. She always comes here with her father and always orders the same. I was just teasing you young'uns." She laughed beautifully.

"Oh! You know her father then?!" Tashigi perked up.

"Yes her father's a pretty big shot bounty hunter, Daddy Masterson."

"Crap! How could I not connect the dots?!" she said to herself aloud.

Grabbing Carol by her hand, she dragged her out. Naruto quickly paid from his pocket and went after them he had asked for an advance from the officer-in-charge because frankly he was broke.

Jogging to their side, Naruto asked her "What happened Tashigi-chan, why did you leave in such a hurry?" calling her chan for the first time

"I just remembered where I had her last name before. She's HIS daughter, the famed sniper Daddy Masterson. He was with Smoker-taichou asking for help regarding his missing daughter. I didn't think this girl would be her. Come on, let's get her to the base quickly." She told him.

"Okay."

 **XxX**

They reached the marine base and there was Daddy Masterson just about to rip into a marine for not being able to find his daughter when he heard a voice he longed for,

"Papa!" she went running towards him

"Carol!" He picked her up and hugged her as she reached him.

"Oh Carol! Where were you making papa worry so much"

"Papa some bad guys took me and then that marine beat them and helped me. We were looking for you papa" Carl said pointing towards Naruto

Noticing Naruto he walked towards Naruto and grabbed his hands feverishly and, "You saved my daughter. How can I ever repay you?!"

Getting his hands out of his grasp, Naruto said to him, "Please sir, I did what any good marine would do. No need to thank me for that."

"You're humble, I like that." He said as he bear hugged Naruto.

Smoker was watching this from the side-lines. He had been curious about the new recruit Tashigi had brought in. He passed the two tests and the additional aptitude test with flying colours. He could've been given the Ensign position if not for his lack of experience.

Now he had helped his personal friend and surprise surprise, he defeated two pirates with a combined bounty of 27 million Beli singlehandedly. And he wasn't even boasting about that fact, on the contrary, he was quite humble. Just how perfect could this boy be? He thought.

 **XxX**

Naruto was ready to sleep in now, his day had been interesting. He had potentially saved a girl's life and probably made and friend here.

He was on the line separating the land of consciousness and blissful dream world when there came a sharp knock on his door. He was in the marine's dorm room so who would disturb him now?!

It was Tashigi knocking on the door, "What is it Tashigi-san, why are you here this late at night?"'

She was panting, seemed like she ran all the way here.

"It….it was Smoker-taichou, he…he said to pack your belongings. You're coming with us" she said the last part with excitement.

Tashigi was excited because she had finally found a friend who she could actually spend time with. You see, ever since she was a child, she wanted to be a swordswoman but most people laughed at her dream. Her girl-friends started avoiding her saying if she wanted to do a boy's job then she should play with boys. It didn't help that she was quite a reserved and shy girl.

She had once tried to go to the boys group because she didn't want to play by herself. They only made fun of her for her dreams. She had lost her friends just like that. Then her father left her mother for a life of piracy, that's why she hated pirates so much. Her only living relative, her mother wanted her to grow up to be good looking so she could get a rich husband but Tashigi wanted nothing to do with men. She thought all men to be like her father, fickle and fake.

She ran away from home and joined the Marine Corps as a chore girl, she was fifteen then, almost a woman grown.

The lieutenant-commander of the base was a kind man, he saw her skill in kenjutsu when she was practicing with a broom. He offered to teach her some as he was an apprentice swordsman back in the days.

From then on she improved by leaps and bounds, after two years of training, she was noticed by Smoker who took her on as his protégé. There, her view towards men changed drastically, men didn't laugh at her dreams though if that was because of her skills or Smoker, she didn't know but she liked to believe it was because of her skills. Though people still laughed at her behind her back for being clumsy, they didn't dare say anything to her face because of fear of Smoker-taichou.

They didn't befriend her because they feared Smoker, so she lived mostly alone here. With no on to listen to her aside from Smoker-taichou and he wasn't too keen on every day talks with her either.

Now, she didn't know if Naruto was her friend at all, for all she knew he had helped her because of her position in marines and wanted to benefit from it, maybe he was just like all the other people. Laughing behind her back at her clumsiness, looking down upon her, but she couldn't help but hope that she was wrong because when he had said that he would support her, he said it with such a sincerity that she couldn't help but believe him.

"Really!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Really, now pack your bags, we leave tomorrow morning at six." She informed him.

"Bu-but why me? I'm just a new recruit." Naruto inquired

"Well it turns out the men you defeated had a combined bounties of 27 million Beli. Smoker-taichou thought that gave you enough experience to deal with the obstacles we might face in grand line. Aren't you excited?!"

"Well yeah, I am truly. Thanks for telling me Tashigi-chan." He voiced his excitement, this was the second time he called her –chan, seemed like his old teenage persona bled through his wise exterior when he was happy.

Tashigi noticed this slip. He would always refer to her as –san politely, but now he called her 'Tashigi-chan'. Could this be how friends referred to each other, she never knew. Anyways she was happy at being called in a sincere friendly manner even though he was her subordinate.

"I'll leave you to your musings now." She said with a smile.

Tashigi left him and he was forced to think about his power level. He had lost his edge after so many years of no combat. He couldn't control his power levels with ease as he could in olden days. He needed a solution because he meant to remain inconspicuous.

So Naruto reached a solution, he would supress his powers forcefully. He drew a seal that would do his work for him, he had gotten the supplies after his induction into marines.

He applied the paper on the back of his headband that he fished out of his sage coat. I should thank Ma for sewing the extra hidden pockets he thought. The seal was a complex array which took most of the space of the back of the headband. He wore the Hitai-ate on his fore head and wore the marine cap sideways so he could proudly wear his protector.

He had stopped wearing the protector when he left Leaf to live as a hopeless wanderer but now he was in another world, here no one would mind plus he needed something to remember his home.

He couldn't sleep that day and he only realized it was time to leave because Tashigi knocked on his door.

"Grand Line, here I come."

 **XxX**

 **Please don't kill me for depowering Naruto. It's not like he lost his power for good, anytime he wants he can remove the Hitai-ate and be back to his old God Mode self plus I'm thinking of bringing Kurama back. But he will only do that if he feels like he is in a pinch.**

 **I MUST SAY, TASHIGI AND KUINA ARE NOT ONE AND THE SAME PEOPLE IN THIS STORY. EVEN THOUGH I BELIEVE IN THE THEORY THAT THEY ARE PROBABLY ONE AND THE SAME. THEY ARE NOT IN THIS STORY. NO EXCEPTIONS.**

 **Anyways I gave Tashigi a sad backstory so you can consider this story slightly AU. She has lived a mostly introverted lifestyle so she doesn't have much friends and she is quite reserved. I don't want myself to get my hands on Tashigi because I feel like she belongs with Zoro just as Boa Hancock belongs with Luffy. But I don't know because as I write I feel the compulsion to add her to Naruto's ever-growing list of love interests. What do you guys think? Should she just cherish him as a really good friend or perhaps as something more?! Leave your answers in the reviews or PM me. But add some reasons as to why you want her in the possible harem and I'll try my best to write her without making her loose her personality.**

 **Have a nice day you guys.**


	8. 7 Baroque Works?

**I do not own One Piece or Naruto.**

XxX

The sea was calm, there were no waves and no wind either. It was almost serene if not for the constant whirring of the engines. Naruto was decked out on a hammock trying to catch up on his sleep. It was a good thing he was the Chief Petty Officer because if not then he would have been working with other marines in the engine room instead of sleeping or at least trying to sleep in this instance.

It had been two days since they had left Logue Town and had entered an area of the sea called calm belt. According to what Tashigi had told him, calm belt were two large strips of sea that were just north and south of grand line. Here there was no ocean current nor any wind so they had to rely on engines and thus the slow travel. If they had taken Reverse Mountain they would've been in grand line by now.

Anyways the point was that he couldn't catch up on his sleep, he had been an extra entry to the ship so all the rooms were taken so he had to make do with the hammock. IT sucked but at least he was going on an adventure now, naturally that got his blood pumping.

Seeing there was nothing to do, he decided to explore the ship in the meantime

The ship was headed towards Mariejois, the Holy Land and capital of World Government. Smoker had requested to be able to board this ship as it was the only ride to grand line, there were others of course but they were scheduled to depart a month later and Smoker couldn't just take one of the Logue town base ships to grand line, they were just not equipped to travel through the calm belts. The ship had some important members of the government on board and an important shipment from the celestial dragons, who Tashigi again explained to him were the descendants of people who formed the world government 800 years ago.

Only the upper deck was available to Smoker and his companions. The lower deck was occupied by the nameless important members of the world government and the lowest deck held the special shipment from the celestial dragons. They were head towards G-3 base where they would drop Smoker and then the ship would once again continue on its way to Mariejois.

Naruto decided to use this time as an opportunity to learn a little more about these so called celestial dragons. Performing a Henge into one of the other generic marine soldiers he's met, Naruto quickly snuck downstairs.

The light lessened as deeper and deeper he travelled into the ship, having difficulty seeing Naruto quickly channelled some chakra into his eyes, he activated his Rinnegan, not the Sasuke's, but his, so only his right eye got the tell-tale purple ripple pattern.

His vision sharpened through the bloodline's activation, so he quickly got moving only to hear a garish voice coming from one of the rooms. Having difficulty hearing the voice clearly, he channelled some chakra into his ear "-Lucci how is it coming along, did you get an idea as to where the pluton blue prints might be?" the garish voice asked.

"No sir, we as of now have no idea where the blue prints might be but Kalifa has her suspicions, we'll let you know if those lead anywhere consequential." The other voice said, but since he could only see one chakra signature the other must be talking through Den-Den Mushi Naruto deduced.

"Keep me updated." The voice said as he put the receiver down.

Naruto was about to walk away when the man spoke again, "Damn it Solomon, pick-up"

After almost a minute of silence, a voice spoke up on the other side of the door.

"Mushi-Mushi, Solomon here." The voice was deep.

"Its Spandam here, tell me have you how has your lead panned up regarding the devil child."

"Sir, we have heard whispers and rumours of a woman who resembles Nico Robin in Alabasta, but we have no credible source, just rumours." Solomon admitted.

'Nico Robin' he gave that name a passing thought, but then forgot about it as he was more interested in listening to what the men were talking about.

"Hmm…Keep an ear out for me, capturing her will make me famous enough to go down in the history books. You'll get a promotion if you do your job correctly." Spandam disclosed.

Just then there was a noise outside the door, "Purupurupuru purupurupuru Purupurupuru."

Spandam opened the door that lead outside his room and saw….nothing. Just the usual darkened hallway. "Who's there? Show yourself" he cried out.

After a few moments of silence, he said to himself "Must've been the wind" and went back inside.

Nami had seemingly called him and he forgot to keep his Den-Den Mushi in sleeping mode.

Naruto let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, while he wasn't afraid of anyone on the ship, hell he could take everyone on the ship even in his suppressed state and still come out on top…probably, he didn't want to gather everyone's attention to himself and decking an important world government official would be doing just that. So he used **Meisaigakure no Jutsu (Hiding with camouflage technique)** to render himself invisible. It made the user invisible from others by hiding their self and scent by bending the light around them.

Though it was really idiotic of that Spandam to think it was wind but it worked in his favour nevertheless. His stomach made a growling noise and he decided to leave before Spandam could come back again. In hindsight, he didn't really even need to hide because they wouldn't have known who he was anyway. But hindsight was always 20/20.

The conversation he overheard and the call he got from Nami side-tracked his plan to find out about those celestial dragons

Getting back on the upper deck he realized how stuffy the lower deck was. It was lunch time and the lunch was buffet style. It seemed the officials were pretty important for them to get such treatment.

He was walking around with his plate looking for a place to seat when he spotted Tashigi.

Another man was talking with her and he could see that she was uncomfortable talking with him.

Walking over to her, he tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around, seemingly relieved at seeing him.

"Naruto!" turning to the man she said "Excuse me, my friend needs help." Grabbing his wrists "Come here." She said dragging him towards an empty table. Naruto looked back and noticed the guy shooting him an icy glare, Naruto shot one back too, just for the heck of it.

"What happened? Who's that guy" Naruto asked curiously as he sat down on the table

"He's some guy pestering me for a date ever since he saw me on the ship. He's a member of CP-5, they are an entitled lot. I don't know what to do, I can't just say NO to him, they are practically running the ship. What if they decide to drop us?!"

"Relax Tashigi-chan, they are government agents and we area marines, aren't we supposed to be allies. I'm sure he won't be so heartbroken as to drop his allies into the ocean, plus do you think Smoker-taichou would allow that? Just tell him you are not interested and it'll be fine." Naruto reassured her.

"Oh-ohk, wish me luck" she went over there and seemingly talked with him. They talked for a minute. Naruto was eating his pasta, when Tashigi came back with a smile on her face.

"So how'd it go?" Naruto inquired

"Well, really well, he was really understanding and said it was fine. I don't know what I was worried about anyways." She gushed out.

"See, you just needed be more assertive." Naruto told her finishing his lunch.

"Any idea when we will reach the base?" Naruto asked her getting up to dump the plates.

Tashigi followed him, "Yes, I asked around and turns out that we'll be there by evening."

"So what are you going to do until then?" Naruto asked.

"I think I'll polish my sword and take a quick nap, we'll have much work to do when we reach there." Tashigi said to him as she left.

"Now what am I gonna do?" he asked himself aloud. Thinking nothing better to do he went back to his hammock.

They had entered grand line now, so the engines were set to minimum power and they were sailing on the winds. Naruto was lulled to sleep by the sound of waves crashing against the ship.

XxX

It was 3 in the afternoon the upper deck of the ship was deserted except for Naruto, who was sleeping away his worries. Suddenly his eyes shot open and he jumped off from the hammock and on the ground in a crouch like an agile spider-human hybrid. He looked around and he was surrounded by at least six CP-5 members, all of them brandishing a pistol.

"Well aren't you one jumpy motherfucker." The man who was talking with Tashigi earlier that day said out loud.

They were all wearing white shirts, white pants, white coats and black ties with black hats to go along with.

"What's the meaning of this?" Naruto asked sounding not so wary of strangers.

"You! You talked that chick from not going out with me, she was so close to saying yes and then you came." The same man all but screamed at Naruto.

"Well not my fault that she didn't want to go out with a guy like you, I just told her to say no if she really meant it." Naruto debated.

"Oh" the man said placing his hand under his chin, "This was a misunderstanding then?"

"Yes, Now I'm going to go look over the deck if you don't mind."

"Ok" the man said casually.

Naruto walked out of there and went over the deck and no one bothered him

What kind of weird people will I meet in grand line? He thought.

As he was looking over the deck, the man in white clothes tried to push him forcefully from behind, Naruto was waiting for something like this to happen so he sidestepped and the momentum of the man carried him over the deck and into the sea.

And just like that, the fight he knew was going to happen ensued.

Two men tried to attack him with their guns but Naruto just dodged the bullets and then with a burst of speed appeared behind them, with their guns in his hands, he dropped the guns and hey fell down, crushed.

Emitting a strong dose of killing intent, the men on the deck were reduced to a blubbering mess.

"I didn't do anything to you people and yet you attacked me, according to Marine code 12, section 27: Anyone who attacks a government agent and yes that includes marines on an assignment with no reason is liable to be put under arrest and depending on the kind of strike is to be executed."

"Now I'm no lawyer, but you guys clearly violated the rule however imperial it may be it works in my favour. So, do I have to tell the higher ups what happened here or are you going to try and save your leader who was just dropped into sea? Hurry up and think for time is of the essence." Naruto preached

They didn't move for a few seconds and Naruto thought them stubborn, but then realized that he had yet to tone down the Killing intent. Just as he did that, they were off like rockets moving towards the lifeboats, intending on dropping it for their leader, if he hadn't been yet eaten by a sea king that is.

Naruto had went through the World Government agent's rule hand book that had been given to him when he was inducted into marines, he went through because he was bored and he liked to read new things. Who knew that reading it would help him solve this situation without much conflict?

XxX

Smoker who had been feeling stuffed in his room so he went outside, he was met with a sight of many CP-5 members down on the ground seemingly suffocating and his new recruit standing over them. He could somewhat feel it too, the oppressive feeling. He had only heard rumors of this ability, it was called **Haō-shoku no Haki** (Conqueror's Haki). Only few in billions could use this ability, and his new recruit possessed this ability! Sure it was unrefined but he possessed it?

He watched as the boy released his Haki and the men scrambled off to…lifeboats? The new recruit went back to his hammock and slept as if nothing had happened. He waited for a few moments to see if something would happen but he was disappointed.

Smoker then went towards Tashigi's room to make sure she was ready, they were almost on the base.

XxX

Naruto and the team had been dropped on the G-3 base and were on their way to meet the Base Commander. The Base Commander was man by the name of Gray Surge, he was of average height, had spiky black hair like Naruto's and dark blue eyes. He wore quite a lot of clothes making his frame larger than it really was.

He seemed like a laid back person but could be serious when time called for it. Instead of normal weapons like sword or guns, he fought with a spear, a spear that had a curved blade and a pointed end. He was a formidable opponent if you had the bad luck of having him as your enemy.

"Sir, I'm Captain Smoker from Logue Town. And these are my direct subordinates Tashigi and Naruto, I requested a transfer to grand line and was stationed here." Smoker told the Vice Admiral.

"Ah! Welcome, welcome to my humble base."

"I would like permission to go after a pirate from East Blue who entered Grand Line a few days ago, his name is Monkey D. Luffy."

"Ah...never heard about him." Gray said anticlimactically.

"He's my responsibility sir, he escaped through my hands." Smoker said solemnly.

"Oh sure you can go after him and other pirates in grand line. I give you full authority." Vice-Admiral Gray Surge told Smoker nonchalantly.

'Well that was easy' thought Naruto and Smoker.

"So we'll need a ship sir and some marines to command." Smoker continued.

"Sure, take as many as you like but no more than 108." He consented.

"Why 108" Naruto blurted out suddenly.

"Ah! A curious one you've got there Smoker-san. Well, 108 is my lucky number." The Vice-Admiral said plainly.

"Oh" was all Naruto could say.

That was a weird reason thought Naruto.

"So you can leave tomorrow, for now, rest." Gray said leaving no room to argue.

XxX

Naruto and Tashigi were talking with each other while drinking their evening tea in Naruto's room.

"So did you not think that it was weird how easily Vice-Admiral let us do what we wanted to?" Naruto asked her opinion on the matter.

"Well I'm not too surprised, according to what I know, G-3 base is the lowest popular base on this side of grand-line. They have the lowest rate of captured pirates on them and are lazy. I think that Gray Chūjō is allowing us to go after pirates because none of his old marines are going to do that. If you see it his way, it benefits him the most. If Smoker-taichou captures pirates, then the base gets a good name and if he doesn't then it doesn't change the way things go around here. Personally I think it's good that he's letting us go after the Mugiwara pirates. I want to capture Zoro and get his meito, he doesn't deserve a sword as legendary as Wadō Ichimonji." Tashigi said, with fierce determination shining within her eyes when she aid the last part.

"What's your problem with that guy? I mean why you think he doesn't deserve the sword. For all we know it might have been given to him by his master willingly and might have personal importance to him. I mean not to sound harsh but what gives you the right to do that?" Naruto asked wanting to know how strong her will for this dream was.

"I think if meitos could speak, then they would say that they wouldn't want to be used by the likes of pirates and bounty hunters, using them for those purposes is just selfish." Tashigi claimed.

"Well not to burst your bubble but tell me one thing, how do you know if that's what they want? Back where I come from there was a legendary sword by the name of Samehada. It was one of the seven such legendary swords in my land. The special part about Samehada was that it was sentient. It could think and you know what? Its master was a powerful soldier in my land, powerful but an evil man. It was with him for years, giving him power and relying on him but you know what? It betrayed him for a more powerful owner. So the point of the story is just like us, swords are not black and white creatures, if they could talk, then they were sentient and if they were sentient then they could damn well make their own choices. So get off your high horse and see the world for what it really is. Not all marines are good guys and not all pirates bad. Not everything is black and white as you make it out to be."

Naruto paused for a breath and then again spoke.

"So don't just blindly believe what others tell you, see the world for yourself and decide whether or not if someone is what others make them out to be. If you think that Zoro guy is so bad, then ask yourself this. What has he done that makes him a bad guy? Just joined a pirate crew that actually liberated a village while the marines where just sitting on their hands. Ask yourself if the single fact that they call themselves pirate gives you any right to take away his swords. When they do something bad, you can judge them but till then hold back your judgement and see if they are what everyone makes them out to be." Naruto paused, waiting to see if she would retort, when no reply came and he continued.

"I'm not telling all this to make you feel bad, you're my friend so I think it's my duty to show you the way to tell right from wrong and good from bad. Don't just listen to world, find your own way. You think you are on the side of justice but this thing called justice…it changes shape depending where you stand and what you are preaching is just a corrupted version of what you should actually follow. Branding someone bad just because they don't fit into society's norms is not justice, its unfairness. So now when you go to sleep tonight, think about what you have heard and think if you want to be a puppet to the musings of the world or be your own person." Naruto finished

Tashigi was silent, she couldn't speak in the lieu of the words that had been spoken just now, she didn't think that her new friend would have such sagely advice for a man younger than her. She had a lot to think about, maybe this is what Smoker-taichou meant when he kept telling her to follow her own sense of justice.

XxX

Naruto, after Tashigi had left reviewed his day. He had realized that most people in world government weren't above using their power to strong arm people they thought weaker. Today was one such an example with the CP-5 members.

He wished that he would have been granted more time to explore the ship but alas time was not with him. Thank Kami for Kage Bunshins though, he had left one kage bunshins on the ship to find out if they were hiding something from them on the lower levels. He would get their memories sooner or later.

He decided to catch up on his sleep since he had been rudely awakened by those men on the ship before.

Closing his eyes he found himself easily drifting into the land of dreams.

XxX

 _It was night time and the moon was shining brightly in the sky. He found himself on a familiar ship, the deck seemed deserted. Seemed like everyone had turned in for the night except for the man in the crow's nest. Now was his time, making no noise he walked towards the stairs leading to lower decks._

 _Only the moonlight cascading through the portholes illuminated the area, he walked forward unhindered. He walked past the leather masked man's room and came upon a door that led to the lowest deck. He tried to pry open the door, but it was locked. Fishing out his trusty lock picking set, he set to work. Within a minute, the door was opened and he walked in closing the door and locking it behind him._

 _There were no portholes here, and that meant no light either. His ocular ability worked in conjunction with light so no light meant no dark vision. He summoned fire on the tips of his fingers and started moving, the flickering flames made eerie shadows across the walls and some of the demons formed by shadow seemed to follow him. He reached the lowest deck and there was a large metal door there, with gears and knobs on it. It looked like a door to a really secure safe, he tried opening the safe with his skills but that lead nowhere._

 _He tried various other things bit none of them worked, now it was time to use his last skill, he hadn't used it ever much, so he want sure if this would work. He set his hands against the metal door and set to working, moving his hands along the inner gears. It was a whisper at first, then a tinkling and then creaks and slowly but surely he could feel the gears moving within the metal door. After a long moment, there was a clicking sound and the door was finally unlocked and with a loud creaking sound it opened…_

 _And it was….empty? He looked around and found cages and privies there. Seemed like they were holding something, someone. After some looking around he reached the conclusion that it was people they were holding, and in subhuman condition no less. And they were coming from deep within east blue. On one of the cages, he had found words inscribed that said Tequila Wolf._

 _Was that someone's name or a place maybe. He sensed many people converging on his position, seemed like the alarm had went off, he exited the room to find…._ _ **Black Zetsus**_ _?! Before Naruto could get over his shock the Zetsus shot projectiles from their hands and he died a scream less death_

XxX

Naruto woke with a start, his mind trying to make sense what was dream and what were memories. He knew that the Zetsu was not real, just a part of his nightmare mixed with his clones memories, most likely it was some CP-5 member who shot his clone.

Wanting to feel fresh air against his face, he left his room. Still trying to get over the fact that the navy was transporting people like animals in a cage for someone called Tequila Wolf.

He exited his train of thought and found himself outside by a balcony, he thought now was as good as any time to check up on his pirate pals. Fishing out his new Den-Den Mushi, he placed a call to Nami.

After a while, a sweet voice came from the other side.

"Mushi-Mushi, who's this"

"Hey Nami-chan, how are you guys?" he asked her.

"Who's it Nami?" Luffy's voice asked.

"No one - no one, go back to fishing Luffy." Nami gushed.

"Hey Luffy! How are you?!" Naruto again inquired.

"NARUTO, HEY GUYS ITS NARUTO, COME HERE." Luffy shouted that Naruto had to pull the Den-Den Mushi away from his ears

It sounded like others gathered around the poor snail on the other side.

"Hey Naruto, here to listen to my brave tales?!" Usopp asked in his tell-tale tone of boasting.

Zoro and Sanji were absent probably sleeping and cooking respectively.

"Who's Naruto, Nami-san?" an unfamiliar voice asked on the other side.

"He's our friend from before we entered grand line." Nami said with barely hidden affection.

"He's our nakama" added Luffy.

"He's my follower" boasted Usopp.

"He's listening too you know Usopp" offered Naruto.

He could almost imagine Usopp's look.

Wondering who the unknown person was, Naruto decided to voice his question.

"Who's the new girl?"

"Naruto, she's Vivi, princess of Alabasta. How cool is that?!" asked Usopp.

"Eep! Usopp-san, don't tell everyone who I am, it's supposed to be a secret." Vivi exclaimed

"Don't worry Vivi, we trust him." Nami assured her.

"Hello Hime-chan, so why did a princess become a pirate, care to share?" Naruto inquired.

"She's not actually a pirate, an evil mystery organization is trying to overthrow her kingdom and we're helping her." Luffy told him.

"Oh! What's the organization's name? Maybe I can help, I'm a marine now by the way." Naruto told them as if it was a no big deal.

"Baroque works and they have a number system for their members an- WHAT YOU'RE A MARINE NOW?!"

Naruto again held the Den-Den Mushi away from his ears.

"Calm down Nami-chan it's mostly an undercover mission so don't chew off my ear."

"That's good, I hate marines ever since that Nezumi bastard." She said solemnly

'I'll tell you the same thing I told Tashigi-chan, world is not black and white, learn to see past your differences." Naruto gave his sagely advice.

There was no sound from the other side the Nami spoke, "I'll try my best to follow your advice but who's this 'Tashigi-chan' you're talking about, you better not forget about us." Nami asked with an edge in her voice.

Great! Naruto thought, now Nami didn't like Tashigi for some reason.

"She's my friend in the marines, she's pretty nice and informative too. She's like a marine and less greedy version of you Nami-chan." Naruto said unknowingly applying salt on the wounds.

"Well if she's such a nice friend than me then why don't you just stay with her" and with that she slammed down the receiver.

Now what was wrong with Nami now, must be on one of her days Naruto thought. He was going to call her again but slid the Den-Den Mushi in his pocket, just as he did it, Tashigi walked out from behind him with a towel across her shoulders

Sweat was clinging to her lithe body, seemed like she just came out of her kendo practice. She was surprised to see Naruto up so early because she had pegged him as a lazy guy because of how much he slept yesterday.

"Who were you talking with Naruto?" she asked innocently

"Oh! No one just talking to myself" Naruto lied through his teeth.

"You sure, I'm sure I heard a girl's voice" she asked skeptically.

"Ah yes! I tend to talk like that when talking to myself out loud, see 'Tashigi-chan, how are you'." He said imitating Nami's voice perfectly.

Tashigi sounded convinced, for now. He would need to come up with better lies if he wanted to maintain his cover, provided he stayed as a marine for long.

"Anyways let's get ready, we have to leave early today, don't we?" Naruto said trying to change the subject.

"Yes, I also get to pick a katana from the armoury!" she said with excitement.

"Great!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Let's get ready now before Smoker-taichou gets grumpy" Naruto joked.

Tashigi giggled.

XxX

"What a splendid Hitatsura! One of the Ryouwaza Mono, Kashuu! I'm so lucky Naruto that I got to meet with such a meito so soon." Tashigi gushed over her new sword.

They were in Tashigi's room, she had invited Naruto to look at her new sword.

Naruto sweatdroppped at seeing this, getting vivid reminders of a certain weapon fetish Kunoichi.

'But whose worse' Naruto thought seeing Tashigi continuing to drool all over her newly acquired weapon carefully caressing it's sharp edge.

'Definitely her, thank god she doesn't have Anko's bloodlust otherwise I think I might just kill myself' Naruto shivers.

"Tashigi! Oi Tashigi! Get down here." Smoker called out, snapping Naruto out of his nightmare.

Naruto and Tashigi suddenly tensed and followed after the voice, in her hurry Tashigi stumbled upon the lower steps on the staircase and was about to fall when Naruto caught the hem of her shirt. Her sword went flying through the air and stabbed itself on the deck.

"Be careful Tashigi-chan, that would've been a nasty fall" Naruto chided her.

"Th-Thank you Naruto."

"Both of you come down here." Smoker shouted at them

"What is it Smoker-taichou?" Naruto asked looking over the other marine who was standing with a black Den-Den mushi on his wrist.

"Th-that's a black wiretap Den-Den Mushi!

"Listen carefully, we intercepted the conversation between two men"

"With your permission I'll replay the interception."

"Yes please! Go ahead." Tashigi told the marine.

There was a lot of static noise but Naruto could make out Sanji's voice and something-something about Mr.0, Princess Vivi, Straw-Hat pirates and orders.

"Even through the interference we were able to match four key words: Straw-Hats, Orders, Mr.0 and Princess Vivi. I think it's safe to say that Straw-Hats are involved in this." Smoker said.

"Perhaps Mr.0 is related to the Mr.11 we caught this morning?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe, you stay here with Tashigi, I'll interrogate him." Smoker told Naruto.

XxX

Mr.11 had unwittingly and unknowingly confirmed their suspicions about the nameless organization that Mr.0 was a part of. Naruto connected the dots and figured out that the organization was Baroque works. The only reliable clue they had was the missing princess Vivi and Mugiwara pirates, so Smoker requested an Eternal Pose to Alabasta from the base.

Smoker, Tashigi and the crew were called to the base but they had to guard the prisoner so Naruto opted to stay.

Naruto was sitting on Smoker's armchair when he sensed someone unfamiliar boarding the ship. He feigned sleep to see what they were going to do, though he could sense malice from them.

"Oi you're millions right, I'm your superior, untie me." Mr.11 told the boarding party

"We're not your underlings Mr.11, we're billions and the difference between our powers isn't that big." The boarder boasted.

"WH-who are you?!" Mr.11 asked a bit afraid.

"I'm Mr. Mellow and the one who's going to kill you." Mr. Mellow claimed.

One of his henchmen, noticing Naruto asked his boss, "Mr. Mellow, there's a marine sleeping here, what should we do?"

"Kill him first then kill Mr.11 here."

They riddled Naruto's body with bullets but as soon as the look of triumph glowed on their face, the body burst into smoke and in its place was a bullet riddled log.

They looked around and found Mr.11 wasn't in his place either.

As Mr. Mellow looked from left to right, he found that with every glance his minions were disappearing and soon he was the only one standing. He looked to his right and the sleeping marine was in his face.

"Say Goodnight" The marine said and soon he was painfully unconscious, courtesy of Naruto's uppercut.

Tying everybody up, Naruto went back to where he hid Mr.11, who was shaking in his pants.

"Now, when Smoker-taichou comes you're gonna tell us everything you and your organization did in Alabasta or...Capcihe?" Naruto threatened indirectly as he cracked his knuckles.

XxX

 **I have placed a Skyrim/Oblivion/Thief/ reference in this chapter, let's see who can figure it out.**

 **Now begins the Alabasta arc but with few changes probably, it's the butterfly effect at work.**

 **Now the marines will know what Baroque works is up to, how will that change the story? I need a beta to check my grammar…anyone willing?**


	9. 8 To New Nakamas

**I do not own either One Piece or Naruto.**

 **XxX**

Mr.11 was running, groping around in the dark. He wanted something, anything within his reach to use as weapon, but he wasn't even sure if weapons would affect that thing.

 **RAAAAAWWWWWRRRR!**

The sound causes him to jump terrified of the nine tailed beast chasing him.

Distracted by the beast Mr 11 tripped crashing to the ground, looking back in terror forgetting to get back up he attempted to crawl away on his hands and knees but stood no chance. He groaned in agony as one of the Fox's massive tails squeezed the life out of him. The eyes, my god the red ember like glowing eyes were looking at him piercing through his soul. He didn't even have to look at his teeth to know the fox could bite him in half clearly he wasn't its first meal today, red blood was dripping down it's glistening canines.

" **CHOOSE** " the fox bellowed, " **YOUR LIFE AND TELL ME EVERYTHING OR STAY SILENT AND SUFFER IN HELL**."

Mr.11 was scared, he would never willingly give out information about his organization to anyone, and it was because he believed in the dream of an ideal nation, a nation where he would have a powerful position. But with another squeeze if its tail, the greed in Mr.11's mind was overcome by fear and because of the fear and need to survive he chose to live.

"I-I chose li-life." MR.11 whimpered.

The Fox seemed to nod his head and just like that, the darkness vanished to give way for sunlight, the sky was blue and birds were chirping, he could see the sea around him, he felt free if not for the ropes around his midsection. He was never so happy to see the sun again, the Fox seemed to melt into a humanoid shape and in his place was the marine that had saved him from Mr Mellow, smiling a bright sunlit smile, almost as if he was his friend and not the captor.

'Just what kind of monster have the marines been hiding?' Mr 11 though in terror.

XxX

After saving Mr.11 from the other members of the organization, Naruto had told him to confess everything he knew about Baroque Works but Mr.11 was a stubborn man, he wouldn't budge so Naruto needed to coerce it out of him. Placing his hand on Mr.11's shoulder as one would do with a friend, Naruto subtly let his chakra flow into his captee's chakra system, slowly melding his chakra with his chakra system and taking over his sensory nerves making him basically see, hear and feel what he wanted him to.

This was a kind of a genjutsu but required physical contact for it to work, slowly reality would melt away in his captee's mind and he would see a hellish view of Kurama chasing him. It was really easy to convince him after that to spill the beans.

Now Naruto was waiting for Smoker and his crew to come back, this would be big news for them. Hell this might even motivate Gray Chūjō to send his forces to Alabasta to help the king.

It would be six hours until they came back, turned out a pirate named Ace had broken into G-2 base and stole some important documents and set a fire. They had been called to G-3 base to review their security which is why it was so sudden.

Smoker was visibly happy with more information on the organization that had Mr.0.

"Good work new recruit, you'll go through marine ranks fast if you continue this streak." Smoker praise Naruto.

"Thank Smoker-taichou." Naruto replied.

Now Naruto had many questions he had regarding Tequila Wolf, he decided to voice one now.

"Sir, I have one question that's been on my mind recently, with your permission I would like to ask." Naruto politely inquired

"Speak freely with me Uzumaki, I'm not one of those stuck up captains that won't let the marines speak their minds." Smoker said to him as he leaned back on his armchair.

"Thanks Sir, Do you know who is Tequila Wolf? I feel like I read that name somewhere connected to marines."

"Hmm…I don't like speaking about that place, the fact that it exists in East Blue is a slap to my dignity. I'm sorry but it's confidential, you'll have to be at least captain level to even know about that place. But I'll give you this, its island and not a person." Smoker gave him a look, "The fact that you know about it make me liable to report you to higher ups, but I won't do that since you're clearly more valuable to marines outside then rotting away in some prison, so don't go snooping around in places where you don't belong." Smoker ended his statement.

"Thanks for pointing that out sir, I'll keep that in mind." 'Like hell I will, this just makes me more suspicious.' Naruto thought to himself.

"You there! Set the course for the base and ask Gray Chūjō to be ready to receive some prisoners." Smoker told a random marine.

 **XxX**

"So you're telling me that they are going to take over the country to build their own ideal nation?!" Gray asked them, looking at Naruto with furrowed brows.

"Yes Chūjō, as he said, Baroque works has been the reason Alabasta is embroiled in a civil war." Naruto declared.

"And how did you get this information out of him?" Gray asked Naruto with a calculating gaze, "Because these men are not pirates and you had only circumstantial evidence to doubt him, you better have not forced this out of him."

"Sir, if you're worried about me coercing it out of him you need not worry, I didn't touch a hair on his bodice. He probably confessed because he realized that outside our custody, his life was in danger as men from his organization were out to kill him. He did it to save his own skin I'm sure." Naruto said with utmost respect.

Truth be told Naruto didn't like playing the part of perfect marine, he would rather be his old self but in his travels he had found out that when you gave cajoled someone they were inclined to trust you more. That was the reason for this farce.

"If the information that this character gave out is correct, our base just might get the respect we deserve, I believe that you are in line for a promotion, I'll make sure of that myself, Good work Naruto." Gray praised Naruto. "Well, the meetings concluded. You may leave, Smoker-san I would like to have a word with you, please remain."

Naruto and Tashigi left the room leaving Smoker behind.

As they were walking, Naruto felt his stomach growl, so he asked Tashigi, "Want to grab a bite?"

Tashigi who was giggling to herself at hearing his stomach growl said, "Sure, I'm hungry as well though not as hungry as you are." She laughed.

They walked into the mess hall, the room was empty, and no surprise there as it was way past lunch time. It was evening, and dinner wouldn't be served till few hours.

"You grab a place to sit while I'll ask the head chef if there are any left overs we could eat." Tashigi told him as she went towards the kitchen area.

The mess hall was a large area with benches and tables lined along, Naruto found a table that would've seated about five people by the window, breeze was flowing there and the view was nice.

A moment later, Tashigi came by rolling a tray table with food on it.

"You're getting pretty famous around here, did you know that? Tashigi asked him

"Wai-what? How am I getting famous, we just arrived here two days ago!" Naruto began.

"Well apparently news travels fast around here, the cooks are saying that you took down about fifty men singlehandedly when we were gone and brought them back as prisoners." Tashigi replied as she shifted the food from the tray onto their plates. After a quick thanks, Naruto began again,

"What nonsense! There were only twenty men." Naruto exclaimed.

"Yeah, because beating twenty men by one's self is so easy." Tashigi told him sarcastically.

"Well, they were weak that made it easy." Naruto said trying to underplay his abilities.

"Still, twenty men is no small feat Naruto, you should be proud of yourself as a marine, plus that man we captured told you everything about this 'Baroque works', we might be able to help an kingdom from fallen in to disarray." Tashigi debated.

"Yeah, we'll be able to help Alabasta, I wonder what kind of kingdom it is." Naruto paused to think, "Hey do you think Straw-Hats are trying to help princess Vivi?" he said planting the seed of thought in her mind.

"What?! NO! That's not possible I mean they are pirat-"She saw Naruto giving her a look that said 'think before you speak'.

"Think about it, they liberated a village under pirate rule because a villager asked them, why you think that it's impossible for them to be helping Princess Vivi, I mean the wire-tap we heard said orders, Princess Vivi, Straw-Hats and Mr.0. Now if we think about it, Princess Vivi might have ventured outside of her kingdom to ask for help or maybe infiltrate the organization that Mr.0 is part of, and maybe she met Straw-Hats along the way and asked them for help. I know this sounds really farfetched to be probable but just give it a thought, keep your mind open to all possibilities." Naruto lectured her.

"You know I gave it a thought to what you said that day, about world not being black and white and it led to me to the conclusion that the world is of varying shades. It might be possible that they are helping Vivi-Hime but that won't make me think twice before I capture the Straw-Hats if confronted in Alabasta, even if I think they are not in the wrong, they still chose a life of Piracy knowing what it ensued. Even if they don't do bad things, even if they are good guys, they are still working under the flag of piracy."

She paused and looked Naruto right in the eye and began,

"As a person myself, I might believe that they are good people but as a marine, it's my duty to capture them. I chose this life knowing what it meant, now just because my thoughts might have changed towards others doesn't allow me to break the oath I took, it doesn't permit me to shirk on my marine duties. I will, until I die or until I find a strong enough reason to abandon my marine post will I not stop giving a chase to pirates. If it all boils down to duty or my feelings, I will choose duty all the times." She finished her statement.

She could see the look of defiance towards her words in Naruto's eyes, he was about to speak but she again started.

"I know that this system might be broken, might be wrong but I can't just sit there and wallow in pity if I see injustice happening, If I want to change the system I can't just say the system is wrong and hope it repairs itself, if I have to I'll work my way up until I'm in the position to right the wrongs, even if it takes me ages, I'll do it. Naruto, I'm not saying that you're wrong in what you said that day, what is said was absolutely right but as the way things are now, as the way I am now, I can't do anything about that stuff, I can't just stop capturing pirates because I feel it's wrong, because if I don't someone else will, at least with me they get a chance. I chose this duty even if it was out of contempt towards my father, I chose this. Now the only way I can make the people see my way is if I work towards it. So I'm sorry that I can't follow your ideals but worry not for deep down within my psyche I found my own self, the one that wishes to right this broken sense of justice the world is preaching."

The Naruto was dumbstruck, he didn't think she would have thought about this so much, but he was happy because even if a little he had managed to change her views and motivate her to do the right thing though he didn't think of that she would have this strong sense of duty.

"Wow Tashigi-chan, that's the spirit. Keep working and one day you just might change the navy. I'll support you!" Naruto backed her.

"Than-Thank You Naruto. I'm just happy that you're not mad because I didn't follow what you said." Tashigi was taken aback by his supportive tone.

"What?! Why would be mad? My intention was to let you choose your own path and you did that splendidly." Naruto reassured her.

Noticing his lunch getting cold, Naruto gobbled it up quickly. Tashigi who saw this happening was weirdly fascinated by this.

Citing that he needed to get rest Naruto left, leaving Tashigi alone with her thoughts.

 **XxX**

Naruto was in his room contemplating whether or not to call his very first friends in this world, he decided he would place a call. Taking out his Den-Den Mushi, he tuned into their frequency and placed the call.

After a few snail-calls the receiver on the other side was picked up.

"It's Naruto here." He plainly told the receiver if the call.

"Hey Naruto, how are you?!" Usopp said through chattering teeth

"I'm fine Usopp." Naruto replied

"Well I wanted you to pass some information to Vivi-hime, tell her that my captain's team caught one man who called himself Mr.11, we got information out of him regarding their hand in the upcoming civil war and because of that tell her that her father has the support of the marines. So when you guys reach Alabasta, be ready for shit-ton of marine presence there, I know that I might have made things for you guys harder but at least the Kingdom has more protection now." Naruto finished giving out the information.

"She heard it all, she's here" Usopp told him

"Thank you Naruto-san, I'm sure my father would appreciate it, I know I do."

"By the way, where is Nami-chan, is she still angry at me?" Naruto asked curiously

"Naruto, she's sick, we're now headed to see her, we just found a doctor who could treat her."

"WHAT?! How is she, is she fine?" Naruto with voice dripping with concern.

"I-I don't know, Vivi said she could die." Usopp said.

"You are an idiot Usopp-san, Naruto-san she is probably fine, this is the best island in all of grand-line to receive medical aid. Don't worry over this, she's in the doctor's care now so she'll be fine." Vivi said placating him.

"Oh-Okay, keep me informed about the happenings over there, I'll call you guys after some time."

It was evening now, he would call them after dinner but he knew his heart won't be on eating.

XxX

Smoker had summoned Naruto into his cabin for whatever reasons. Tashigi was present there too, pacing the room.

"You called Smoker-taichou?"

"Yes Naruto have a seat, Tashigi, you too." Smoker instructed. She complied.

"So after you two left, Gray Chūjō instructed me to command the bases forces and head over to Alabasta. While there, you two will be working directly under me and you both will have platoons under your command. You two need to be at your best there, we'll catch the Straw-Hats and capture the leader of the organization called Baroque Works." Smoker declared his intentions.

"Yes sir" Tashigi called out with utmost respect.

While Naruto was unsure whether he wanted to capture his friends, he knew at that instant that he wouldn't be capturing them if it came to that, he would rather help them he thought.

"You've got any doubts new recruit?" Smoker asked seeing Naruto's expression.

"No sir." He decided to not voice his opinions, not now. He had other things on his mind then arguing with his captain.

"We'll leave for Alabasta tonight after you've had your dinner, so be ready." Smoker announced.

 **XxX**

Naruto didn't eat that day, he was still worrying over his friend's condition, he decided to he would check up on them once the ship had set sail.

He decided to meditate till then, he needed some inner peace. He entered his mindscape, he opened his eyes and saw the meadows of grass and forests of trees. His mindscape had its own eco system, there were animals he had introduced from when Kurama had been released from his cage. He walked in his mindscape for hours but in real world it was only close to an hour, he was relaxing on the grass when a knock came upon his door. He slowly opened his eyes and got up. He knew who it was even before he opened his eyes, that's how his sensory ability worked, it was passive when he was meditating. It was Tashigi who knocked. Knowing it was time to leave, Naruto grabbed his bag and switched off the light. He opened the door and greeted her with a sheepish smile and they walked towards the ship.

Their quarters were side by side, and above them was Smoker's room. Naruto bid her good night and walked into his room. He decided to pay his friends a visit and see for himself if Nami was fine.

He first created a clone and then focused on Nami's seal and disappeared in a yellow flash.

 **XxX**

Chopper had been liking joining a pirate group more and more. They were a merry band of pirates and didn't treat him like a monster. His captain was making faces with chopsticks between his nose and lips and dancing merrily with his crew member, Usopp. He admired Usopp, he was such a brave man having gone on countless adventures on seas. He was boastful but who wouldn't be when you were so awesome. Chopper wanted to be like Usopp.

His other kind-mate, was a large duck named Carue. Carue was a merry duck from what he had seen and really cared for her friends because she had jumped into freezing water to save the swordsman.

The blue haired woman was Vivi, she was kind to him and didn't make fun of him like Usopp and Luffy. The cook was a chivalrous man but only if you were a woman. His name was Sanji, however kind of man he might be but he made heavenly food.

The green haired man, Zoro was his name was engaged in a drinking contest with his patient Nam- OH SHIT! She was drinking, Doctorine had told her not to drink any kind of alcohol for a few days, shit! She would kill him if she found out about this. Grabbing her with his little hands he started to pull her away from the sake mug. As he was pulling her, she tripped on him and was falling. Both of them were drunk and they lost their balance, in his drunken state he didn't realize he could just turn into his human form but he closed his eyes and just braced himself for impact. An impact which never came, he slowly opened his eyes and saw a blonde man holding Nami by her waist.

Where had he come from? Who was he? Questions like that flew through his mind. Everyone became tense at this new arrival, it didn't help that the others weren't creatures with night vision. They only had the moonlight to illuminate the deck. Zoro unsheathed his swords, Usopp started quivering in his boots but her equipped his slingshot nevertheless, Vivi brought out something that resembled a slashers and Carue went into hiding.

Just as they were about to attack the man, the man said, "Why do you keep getting into trouble when I'm not here eh?" the man asked Nami.

Everybody relaxed instantly except Vivi.

"Na-Naruto!" Nami all but whispered, which only Chopper caught on. So this man's name was Naruto…hmm.

"NARUTO!" Luffy and Usopp called out.

Zoro and Sanji gave him a friendly nod, Vivi and Chopper were the only one who were uncomfortable. They didn't know if this new person would accept them but soon their doubts would vanish.

"Wh-why're you here?!" Nami asked, a blush adorning her face, whether it was the drinks or the close contact, no one knew.

"Well, my friend is sick and I can't visit?! No way was that going to happen."

"Bu-But you said the seal would disappear once you used it" Nami asked.

"I can always apply it again but I can't not visit you guys when I'm worried about you."

"You were- you were worried about me?!" Nami asked with barely concealed happiness.

"Of course Nami-chan, I mean you are my nakama aren't you, so how could I not worry, plus I had to talk with Vivi-hime." Naruto told her, unwillingly destroying the mood.

"Ehhh! So it wasn't just for me, was it now, first that Tashigi girl and now Vivi huh, yo-you pervert" and she stomped away.

Everybody else had sweat drops on the back of their heads, Naruto was wondering how he was a pervert and where did Tashigi come from?

Chopper was on the side-lines the whole time, not because no one approached him, it's because as soon as someone would try to approach him he would run away, he was shy that way.

He saw Naruto kept fussing over Nami and kept her away from alcohol, he saw him dance their funny dance with Luffy and Usopp and win a drinking contest with Zoro. He saw him playing with Carue and talking with Vivi. Naruto even tried to talk to him but he ran away and hid behind the mast of the ship, he hid in such a way that his whole body was visible except his forehead.

He talked with Vivi about some arrangements and plans he had made to help her kingdom and Vivi seemed so grateful towards him. She was ready to give him a reward but Naruto just said that it was his duty as a marine.

After realizing what Naruto wanted to talk about with Vivi, Nami's misplaced anger subsided.

So he was a marine, wonder why he was chummy with his crew. Nami was acting weird around him though, she kept glancing at him from the corner of her eyes and kept inching closer to him when they were sitting on the ground.

At the end of the night, Nami ended up sleeping on Naruto's shoulder and then later her head inconspicuously slipped into his lap when he was sitting cross legged.

Naruto and other sans Nami ended up staying up the whole night drinking at partying for his visit.

As the sun was beginning to rise, Nami awoke. Naruto told them that there would a strong marine presence in Alabasta and apologized again as he started to leave but it seemed he remembered something and then looked right at him in the eye, he wanted to go hide somewhere from this strangers gaze but just as he was inching closer Naruto disappeared and appeared behind him. Chopper was shocked at the speed, he was afraid he was going to attack him but then Naruto said lightly,

"Doctor-san, my crew needs you, more than they realize because they are bound to do crazy things and will get hurt. Please look after them while I'm not here. I am entrusting their life in your hands and I believe in you, you see I'm very rarely wrong about people and you seem the kind of person to that I can trust. So look after these idiots for me will you?" Naruto asked him.

Chopper was overwhelmed by the trust this man was putting him, he was never trusted, not among his brethren and not among humans, they were scared of him. But that was before he found his crew and now this man trusted him too. He felt a warm sensation take over his being and he loved it.

He nodded at the blonde man's question, agreeing. The man gave him the most dazzling of smiles and bid his good bye. He was about to leave when Nami reminded him about the seal. Rubbing his head sheepishly, he placed the seal on her exposed skin on her arm and disappeared.

 **XxX**

Naruto appeared in the room to the sight of his clone sleeping, just as he dispelled the clone there came a knock on the door. He was quite drunk at the moment because since there was no Kurama meant no passive healing abilities and that meant being vulnerable to being inebriated. Quickly summoning the golden chakra cloak and dispelling it, his body had been vanquished of the lingering alcohol.

The day went by with nothing consequential happening and so did the next and the next and so on. Though whenever he went outside his room, the marine would point at him and speak in whispers, some would even have stars in their eyes. Seemed like he was pretty famous guy on the ship. One day he decided to ask Tashigi why it was such a big deal.

She had said, "Look, after Gray Chūjō you're the only guy who has ever defeated such a number of enemies' singlehandedly. They believe that you are the reason that the base will get its olden day's glory back and thus the hero worship. Most of the guys who were stationed here were deemed useless by their previous higher-ups or were considered cannon fodder when they were inducted into marines. You who are a new marine, who singlehandedly defeated the organization members are a symbol of hope and perseverance for them. You've unknowingly inherited a great responsibility as a marine."

Naruto didn't know what to say after that, well I'll just have to do my best he thought.

It was the night of day 13 when they arrived at Alabasta in a town called Nanohana. Most of the marines decided to stay at the local inns but Naruto chose to stay on board the ship.

He decided to call it a night, he had a gut feeling that he would need the rest.

 **XxX**

 **That's it…I'm losing my imagination really fast and exams just around the corner. Anyways enjoy this chapter and I am still looking for beta, I fired off of a few messages to people in the beta readers' list but so far no replies. Will anyone of my readers help me out and be my Beta temporary until I find a permanent one?**


	10. 9 The Beginnings of a Civil War

**I do not own either One Piece or Naruto.**

 **XxX**

The sun had peaked its head over the horizon and was illuminating the morning sky, people had started getting out to work and the desert creatures were starting their day. On the outskirts of Nanohana town was a shirtless man with an orange hat. He was walking with a wanted poster in his hand, looking for the man in question.

As he walked into the city limits, his stomach made a growling noise indicating that the man was hungry. He gazed upon a restaurant, its name was Spice Bean, and he decided to eat there.

He entered pushing aside the saloon doors, the chattering in the eatery seemed to come to a standstill, and then after a second had passed it began again, having measured up the newcomer.

Ace walked over to the counter and took a seat, only one other patron was sitting on the counter, slurping on ramen, which was quite odd because ramen was a rare dish in this type of desert country. The man had finished at least four bowls and now was finishing the fifth.

Ace ordered food and told the owner to keep the dishes coming. As the owner was leaving for the kitchen as called his attention and putting the poster on the table he asked, "Have you seen this pirate? I'm looking for him."

"I can't say I have, sorry" the owner apologized.

"It's okay, didn't expect you to know, thanks anyways." Ace told the owner.

After a moment, the food arrived and he started to dig in.

While he was busy eating, he noticed that the man next to him was looking at the poster intently.

"Do you know him?" Ace asked with a little bit of excitement in his voice.

"The answer might depend on who you are." the blonde man said coldly.

It was at this moment Ace took the time to take in the man's appearance. He had sun-kissed wavy blonde hair, had whisker like marks on his face and had a forehead protector with a leaf symbol on his forehead. He was wearing a pale yellow T-shirt with blue cotton pants. He was wearing a white overcoat. All in all he was not generic looking, he looked 'special'. Like he was someone important.

"I'm his brother."

 **XxX**

Naruto had gotten up early, before sun even rose and had went to explore the town. He got into his clothes sans the marine cap, he had lost it on Luffy's ship the time he visited them. After a while he had gotten hungry and went into the only restaurant that was open, it was called Spice Bean.

It was just his good luck that the restaurant was one of the few ones that served ramen in this country. He was on the fifth bowl when a man entered the eatery. He sat next to him, ordered his food and asked the Yoshimoto, the owner about a pirate. Naruto wasn't paying attention but when he went to take his sixth bowl, he noticed the wanted poster. It was Luffy's poster with the 20 million Beli bounty.

The man had noticed him looking at the poster and asked him whether he knew Luffy. Naruto just icily replied that depending on who he was, the answer may vary.

Naruto took this time to observe the man. He activated his sensory technique that allowed him to sense emotions and took his appearance in. He had an orange hat on his head and was topless, was wearing shots and had a tattoo on his left bicep. He had freckles that seemed out of place on his mature face. But the odd thing was this man was giving off power in waves, his chakra was of the charts, and he could easily give an elite ANBU squad a run for their money and maybe even come out on top.

"I'm his brother" replied the man.

Naruto remained calm at that statement, he could sense that the man was not lying or had malicious intentions. Naruto also had a good feeling about this man so he decided to trust him.

"I know of him, he should be here sometime today." He coolly said, gone was the icy tone.'

"That's great! How do you know that?" the man curiously asked.

"Well they were on their way to Alabasta with the princess the last time I checked and Nami said it would take 14 days to reach here so…" Naruto drawled out.

"Oh! Thanks man, I've been looking for him for weeks, I'm Ace by the way." Ace told him.

"Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you. I didn't know that Luffy had a brother and he never mentioned it either." Naruto casually said.

"Ah! You see I was adopted into the family. We're not bound by blood but by a much stronger bond, brotherhood." Ace told him passionately, "Though he makes me worry sometimes that idiot brother of mine. Do you have a brother?" he asked him.

"I had one, he was my older than me and the best one any one could ever hope for." Naruto said, his voice breaking a little as he remembered Kakashi.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Ace sympathized

"No-No it's okay, it's in the past now anyways." Naruto told him.

"So how do you know Luffy anyways?!" Ace asked.

"He's my nakama. We met before he and his crew entered grand-line and I separated from them willingly though I've promised them that I would join the crew once I know enough of this world." Naruto confessed.

"Oh, well when you join them please take care of my otouto for me, and I'll owe you one. God knows he needs it. I feel like I can trust you for some reason." Ace told him.

"The feeling is mutual Ace-san" Naruto confessed.

Just then, he saloon doors opened and in walked Smoker.

"What is the Commander of Second Division of Whitebeard Pirates doing in this country?" Smoker asked rhetorically

Just as Smoker identified Ace, the people in the restaurant started filing out in a panic, sure that there would be fight.

"I'm looking for my younger brother." Ace replied coolly.

"Since I'm looking for another pirate, I'm not interested in you." Smoker said

"Then will you let me go?!" Ace inquired.

"Unfortunately as long as you are a pirate and I'm a marine I can't let you do that." Smoker said as he readied to fight, "Uzumaki, get away from him. Your attacks won't work on him. Go and get backup." Smoker ordered Naruto.

Throwing one last glance towards Ace, Naruto left the eatery.

Ace for his part was dumbstruck, the guy he just asked to take care of his brother was a marine?

But he didn't get to think ahead because at that moment an object came flying through the window and sent him and Smoker crashing through the walls.

 **XxX**

Naruto was halfway towards the inns where the marines were, when Luffy shot into the restaurant with is rocket technique. Knowing that this would get the marines' attention, he quickly thought on his feet and Henge'd into a generic native of the country with turban and clothes. He sent out a clone to ask for backup, he thought Ace could handle himself. He quickly went back to the inn and heard

"-I'm here to beat Crocodile" Luffy was telling Smoker. Just then Ace got up shot a fireball towards Smoker, ready to start the fight.

In the commotion that ensued he dragged Luffy into an ally.

Dispelling the Henge, he drew out blood from his thumb by biting it, he quickly went through a set of summoning seals, and whispered " **Kuchiyose no Jutsu".**

There was a pop noise and burst of smoke later, there was a large desert toad in front of them, it could've easily been mistaken for a frog if not for the glands along its eyes and the horizontal slit eyes.

"Naruto-sama, where were you?! We've been worried. If you hadn't summoned us, Ma and Pa would've summoned you sooner more than later. Don't go missing out on us, you're our only summoner."

"A talking frog!" Luffy exclaimed.

"I'm not a frog, I'm a toad. We are noble creatures than those dastardly frogs." Gamabaku snapped at Luffy.

"I wonder if it's tasty?!" Luffy thought out loud with drool dropping out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry Gamabaku, I didn't wanted to be alone for some time after the Hachibi fiasco. I'm here now, please help me out quickly here. We're going to use **Gamagakure jutsu (Hiding in a toad technique)** to get out of here, how many can you fit?" Naruto asked quickly before Gamabaku could argue with Luffy more.

"About ten, then the dimension gets packed." The toad answered Naruto.

"Great that's way more than I need but nice to know! Let's begin, but first" he said as he started going through hand-seals, he again whispered, **Rinne Hansha (Rinnegan reflection)** and touched Gamabaku's head. In that moment the toad's eyes shifted from golden horizontal slits to purple concentric rings. Now that his Rinnegan was reflected on Gamabaku's eyes they had synchronized vision and could also communicate mentally.

Then he sensed the Straw-Hats position and mentally said 'THERE'.

Grabbing Luffy by his head, he stuffed him inside Gamabaku's open mouth and then later slid down in himself.

It was quite roomy in his stomach, Naruto saw the outside world with his Rinnegan and mentally asked Gamabaku to move towards Straw-Hats.

Inside the stomach of Gamabaku, Luffy asked Naruto, "You can transform too! Awesome, we met a guy on the sea who could transform too but turned out he is with the mysterious evil organization"

"Is that so….hmm." Naruto knew what a capable person could do with Henge, if there was a person here who could do Henge then God knows what kind of damage he could do to the image of the king

 **XxX**

Vivi was waiting for Luffy with the others, the marines had noticed Zoro and were giving them a chase, and thankfully they had found a place to hide, now they were just waiting for their captain to come back. Carue was getting restless so Vivi ran her hands across her head. Fortunately the shopping for the journey ahead had been done by Nami and Sanji and now they just had to wait for Luffy.

Zoro and Sanji were bickering over something calling each other names like baka cook and marimo head while Chopper was down on the ground, resting due to heat. Usopp and Nami were talking about something-something weapon for Nami.

Just then a loud croak like voice came from amidst them and they noticed there was a large toad sitting in the middle of the ground.

Usopp who was on the edge said through quivering legs, "It's just a desert toad."

Chopper was up and looking at the weird creature. They didn't have amphibians on Drum Island.

"At least this one didn't call me a frog." the toad croaked out.

"Wha-"before anybody could comment on the talking toad, it mouth opened and out shot a hand like someone reaching from out of a grave. Usopp and Chopper were shaking in their pants, frightened.

But their worries were laid to rest when out came Naruto al slick and slimy.

"Wha! The toad ate Naruto!" Chopper called out afraid of the toad and hid behind Zoro.

Naruto only grinned and started pulling out something from the toad's the mouth. It was Luffy.

"Ahh! The toad ate Luffy too!" Usopp cried out.

"Settle down you idiots, you'll attract attention, your captain has attracted more than enough." Naruto reprimanded them.

"How did you do that Naruto?!" "-Naruto-san" Nami and Vivi asked amazed.

"Perks of being a toad sage" he said like it was a usual thing to say.

"Anyways, Luffy the person you crashed into was Smoker-taichou, the man who almost caught you and other one was Ace. Yes before you ask we just met and he's looking for you. But now's not the time. Get running, I'll distract them, Ace will probably find you by the end of this mission. Now GO!" Naruto all but shouted the last part.

"H-hai, thanks Naruto." Nami said, surprised by Naruto's commanding tone of voice.

Gamabaku disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving the non-ninja folks scratching their heads. Just as they started running away, a big ball of fire and smoke arose in the direction behind them.

Naruto for his part didn't get distracted and created total eight shadow clones and had them Henge into Luffy and his friends and made them run in a different direction.

Then he went back to ground zero of the fire ball and found Smoker there standing amidst small patched of fire surrounded by marines. Seemed like backup had reached him in time but they were of no use.

Spotting Naruto, he walked over to him.

"What were you doing with Fire-fist Ace?" Smoker suspiciously asked.

"Sir, I was eating and minding my own business when that guy came into the restaurant. He was asking around about Straw hat Luffy. I didn't know he was a pirate though, that's why I was talking with him, I thought he was a bounty hunter." Naruto said in one go.

Smoker. Rubbing his temples said, "Uzumaki, how can you not know who he was! He is the commander of 2nd division of Whitebeard pirates, were you living under a rock? Anyways it wasn't like you would've been a match for him anyways, he was a logia type and unless you can use Bushoshuko Haki (Armament Haki) which even I don't you wouldn't be able to hit him." Smoker said to him suspiciously like he was expecting him to disagree.

"You should get a Kairōseki encased weapon if you want to fight people like them next time." Smoker advised.

"I'll keep that in mind next time taichou." Naruto acknowledged.

"Smoker taichou! The Straw-Hats have been spotted." A random marine who entered the clearing told Smoker.

"Where?! Follow them, I'll be with there with you shortly." Smoker told them.

"Uzumaki, take quarter of our forces and lead them towards Alubarna, I and Tashigi will take the rest to Rain Base, there is something fishy going on here and I've got a hunch that Crocodile is in the center of it. " Smoker commanded Naruto.

"Will quarter of the forces be enough if civil war breaks out?" Naruto asked.

"No- they won't be enough but we'll have to make sure that it doesn't come to that. I'll come to back you up in a day's time." Smoker answered

After that Smoker went ahead to capture Straw-Hats leaving Naruto alone in the clearing.

 **XxX**

It had taken a day but Naruto had led the men under his command to Alubarna, oddly enough the very few captains and commodores under G-3 base had chosen to stay back, so most of the marines who had travelled to Alabasta were only infantry units.

Naruto had requested a meeting with the King. Cobra was his name. They had been allowed to stay in the barracks, ever since more than half of the royal army had left to join the rebels the barracks were mostly empty.

For the meantime he was now sitting in one of the balconies in the palace's lower level waiting for the confirmation of his meeting. He was wondering how the Straw-Hats were faring against the desert and the marines.

He thought back on how he had decided to hide his powers in this world. He had only used summoning and Henge in front of people here. Only that little girl knew his other power, his Kurama Chakra Mode.

Now that he thought back on the girl, he wondered how she might be now, did he make a difference in her life, and he sure didn't preach anything to her. He wondered if she membered him because he sure as hell did but for the life of him he couldn't remember her name and now her face was hazy too. She was one of the reason he came to this world, he would look for her sooner or later, because he thought of her as his responsibility for some reason, he couldn't argue that they had formed an inkling of a bond when he had saved her, the same as Nami but on a whole another level. Though he was sure if he saw her photo as a kid he would recognize her, as an adult…not so much.

Just as he was lost in his thoughts a man came to him, he was a tall imposing dark skinned man with medium length hair and a long broad nose, he resembled a jackal.

"The king has asked for you marine-san." The man told Naruto

"Finally! Lead the way." Naruto asked of the man, "By the way, my name is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki."

"Chaka, I'm the acting chief of Royal guards as of now." Chaka informed Naruto.

"So what kind of man is the king?" Naruto inquired as they walked

"He is kind and loyal to his family and kingdom, the claims that we used dance powder to make it rain here are baseless!" Chaka spoke with a fierce loyalty.

Tashigi had explained to him the reason for the upcoming civil war, it was the rumors that King Cobra had used dance powder, a powder that would make it rain in an area at the cost of drought in other neighboring regions. But now that he knew that Baroque Works had staged all of this, he didn't find it hard to believe that the king was innocent in all this.

They reached a set of decorated large doors, Chaka left him there, entering through the doors Naruto found himself face to face with a regal man. His forehead was wrinkled, he had a tied off beard and long black curly hair. He was wearing a green robe with a purple coat on.

"Cobra-sama, I have been sent here by my Captain to support your troops in case the civil war breaks out. My captain has gone to follow one of the leads that might lead to apprehension of the Baroque Works leader. He suspects the shichibukai Crocodile to be involved somehow." Naruto informed him assuming he was the king, and he was right.

"Yes, I wanted to inform you of just about that, my daughter sent me a letter that details that the leader of the organization is in fact Crocodile. But we can't do anything about that, if we announce this to public, they will think we are trying to put the blame on Crocodile, one who they think is their savior from pirates. Unless we have solid proof, we can't do anything about this information." Cobra told him.

"That indeed is a problem, what we need to do is placate the rebels, one wrong move and the country will be on the brink of civil war, even whatever I say against the organization will be seen as the World Government taking sides with one of their founding members. We're in quite a pickle." Naruto confessed, "Tell me what is your policy towards the rebels? Do you arrest them, execute them? Imprison them?" Naruto asked.

"You dare think I would kill the people of my country for opposing my rule marine!" he said with justifiable anger, "The children of this country are doing what they think is right but doing that doesn't justify me executing them. I'm not like one of those of my peers on Mariejois who think that they are better than the people they serve, it's my duty to serve and look after my kingdom and I won't be doing that by executing people who have been misled." Cobra ended his statement.

Naruto found a newfound respect within himself for this man. When most rulers would've taken the anger of their incompetence on the rebels, this king wanted to save them. Very few people were inherently loyal to their duties like this, he had the Will of Fire burning within him.

"I'm sorry Cobra-sama if you're offended but that's what other kings would've done. But fret not because we have bigger matters to worry about. My undercover marine source in Katorea said that the rebels are preparing to attack Alubarna tomorrow, they'll reach here by early morning. They mean to take the palace." He informed the king.

In actuality the undercover source was a Moku Bunshin henge'd into a rebel soldier, they were talking via a small wireless communication device he had lying around in his spare sage coat pocket. The bunshin kept him updated, giving him latest information regarding the movements' of the rebel army.

"Don't do anything that might provoke them, don't give them a reason to attack you so that means no attacking them first. Be ready to deploy a flag of peace, because it's your own people who are going to get slaughtered. Surrender because by this time my captain would have captured the culprit and will bring him to justice. If not then I'm here to keep you people safe, I trust that the rebel army won't pillage this town as they still love the country only hate the means the ruler used to run it." Naruto assured them,

"But there is one problem in this plan, the organization has a person capable of transforming into others, let's hope he can't transform into you or there'll be a war. I'll see if I can do something about that transforming man." Naruto told them.

"Thank you marine-san, we asked the world government for help but the celestial dragons pressured them as they consider my family second-class for not leaving Alabasta and living in Mariejois to not send any help, your base is the only one that responded. They think we deserve this." The king said gratefully.

"Please, its Uzumaki Naruto, and I didn't know about that, seems like the celestial dragons are a bastard bunch." Naruto said and at that moment Naruto got an idea.

"Cobra-sama, I need some information, do you know anything about a place called Tequila Wolf?" Naruto slyly asked, "By asking you this, I'm risking my freedom so I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone that I asked you this, but I can't just sit still knowing that people were transported to that place for some reason in cages."

"I-I don't know how you know about that fact and I'm not going to ask but know this, you can't tell anyone besides people you trust that you know about that, it's a top class secret for a reason, a secret I'm about to divulge." Cobra said solemnly.

"Do you truly wish to know this, because after this you won't look at the government the same way." Cobra cryptically said.

"Yes, I want to know the truth, I don't want to remain blind to the workings of this world." Naruto answered

"It's deplorable really, how people in high positions abuse their power. This is an example of that, 700 hundred years ago after the World Government was established, the nobles commissioned the building of a bridge that would connect the islands, Tequila Wolf is the current island to which the bridge had been recently connected and thus the now base of operations for them. The people who build the bridge aren't workers but slaves, people who might have pissed off a Celestial Dragon or people who were not part of the countries that formed the government. Nowadays nobles send the slaves that they have been grown bored of to the bridge. Children have been born, lived their whole lives there as slaves and died on the bridge. I know this might be too much for a young marine like you to take in but you asked and I answered. Such is the way of the world, the weak suffer under the cruelty of strong. This all I can tell you, even I know only this much since the records don't say much and my father refused to tell me more. I would love to say that my family was one of the few that opposed it, but alas my ancestors were of the same mindset as other nobles, it was with my great grandfather did the line of people like me became common in my family." Cobra told him.

"Doesn't the government do anything? Isn't slavery a criminal offense in the eyes of the government? "

"You must understand Naruto-kun that the noble are protected, they can't be tried for any crime they commit, they can murder a person in front of you and you won't have the power to apprehend them. A person who commits an action against a world noble has to face the might of an admiral, may it be marine or a pirate. As they are the descendants of the founding families, you can't do anything against them. My family was one of the founding family but left to rule our nation." Cobra informed him.

"If that is all?" Cobra asked him.

"Y-yeah." Was all Naruto could say as he aimlessly walked away.

In his aimless state, he didn't sense two people with malicious intent entering the room as he left it.

He walked away from the room, his mind heavy with thoughts. His enemy was the whole government, even though it maintained peace, the peace was just a farce, it would leave one of its member nation to fend for itself, it enslaved countries who didn't see it their way. Under this farce of peace was enslavement, the cages he had seen had transported people to the ends of their lives.

What if what Dragon told him was true, what if thy really had destroyed an island and killed all of its inhabitants to keep their secret, just how much did he not know? Was he helping their cause by being a marine? Should he be helping the revolutionaries instead of the marines? Were the marines even the good guys if they helped in this injustice? Then he remembered his own words that he had told Tashigi. Not all marines were good guys but that didn't mean all marines were bad. Maybe only the people at top were like that. He decided he would stay a marine a little while longer, at least until this whole Alabasta incident was over.

 **XxX**

It was early morning time when the sun hadn't even risen when Naruto noticed the commotion in the palace, the soldiers were running seemingly searching for something. He grabbed one of the royal guards and asked him what the matter was.

"The king is not in the palace, he's disappeared!" the soldier said and went about his way searching for his liege lord.

Just as he was processing that piece of information, the radio piece in his ear crackled to life, his bunshin speaking through, "Boss, the king has appeared here, he is flaunting around saying that he used dance powder in Alubarna, I think he's an impostor, I'm low on chakra too, maintaining the Henge for two days took a lot out of my reserves. I'm about to dispel, what should I do?"

"Use **Sōshinki (Wood Transmission),** use it near the leader of the rebel army. You did well by the way." Naruto replied.

Sōshinki was a technique that was used in conjunction with Moku Bunshin, turning the bunshin into tracking seeds and planting them on a person allowed user to track said person. His clone would use them on the leader of the rebel army and he would thus be able to keep track of enemy's movements.

Even though the damage was done, he still needed to find the king. He expanded his sensory technique to locate the king but couldn't find him, which meant he was out of his sensory area limit, which was 2 kilometers.

Closing his eyes, he entered sage mode and started sensing for the king, 'There!' he thought, he quickly began moving in his direction.

Even if the rebels weren't going to attack then, they sure as hell were going to now after the impostor had did that in Katorea. No way was the king in two places at once.

Naruto went roof hopping above the empty city, seemed like king had evacuated the city if worse came to worse, this was good. Now he would only need to hold back enough to not destroy any buildings.

He reached an area by the walls, it was a desert clearing. He could sense Cobra beneath him, using **Doton: Dochū Senkō** ( **Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage)** he swam underground and pulled Cobra out of a underground cavity. There was no one nearby, seemed like his captors had left him there and went to do something else, in his sage mode he could sense two figures approaching this position, he didn't want a confrontation now so he took Cobra and went towards the palace.

He could sense Straw-Hats approaching the city, they were not far off. He could also sense the rebel army approaching, at this rate the Straw-Hats would reach here first by a small margin. In the midst of this, he could sense Tashigi approaching with a small unit of soldiers with her, why was Smoker not with her though? Where were the rest of the marines?

But he had no time to worry about that, dropping Cobra at the palace with Chaka to guard him, Naruto went to the battle front, there men were ready to fight with no peace flag in sight.

"You were supposed to surrender, didn't the king tell you?!" he grabbed one of the royal soldiers and asked.

"He did, but last evening he said to prepare for battle and give the rebels everything we had got."

Rubbing his temples, Naruto thought 'of course the impostor, but when? I didn't feel anyone using chakra yesterday, I was specifically looking for the phenomenon…. unless, unless it was a devil fruit.'

Naruto had thought that someone had figured out how to use Henge in this world but he had ignored the simplest explanation, devil fruits. Shit! This was all going down the perpetual drain.

"Cease your preparations, you are not to fire, raise the peace flag." Naruto commanded them.

Some seemed to comply by dropping their guns but that effect soon vanished when one of the generals of the battalion said, "You're just a marine, we listen to king." And like that the dropped guns were picked up.

Naruto thought on his feet and went away.

King Cobra came out from an ally and looked at the general who had resisted Naruto's order and,

"The man who ordered you to fight was an impostor, raise the flag and do not fire, relay this message to all fronts." King Cobra commanded

"Ha-hai Cobra-sama" the general replied.

Cobra passed through a building, in went Cobra and out came Naruto.

Naruto was outside the city walls patrolling for any Baroque Works agent when he spotted a great dust cloud forming in the distance, seemed like the rebels had arrived. The white flag of peace had been raised and they would see it in the meantime. His sage mode was fading as the five minutes were nearly over but on the brink of fading he sensed Vivi, heading towards the dust cloud.

Seemed like she was intending to stop the rebels by confronting her friend, the rebel leader. That seemed like a good plan for her, maybe she could pull it off. The rebels were halfway to city walls and Vivi had gotten down off Carue with her hands spread wide. He could hear her screaming to stop, pleading. The rebels were slowing down, seemed like they had spotted the flag.

Just then, there was sound of a canon firing and the shell landed amidst the rebel army. And then two more shots landed from other canons before the generals of the army stopped them, but the damage was done. The rebels would be now screaming for blood and they were charging straight towards the city gates and Vivi was in their line of charge.

A sandstorm had started blowing and was probably obscuring the vision of rebels of Vivi.

'All the precautions, all the planning, all for naught!' Naruto thought solemnly, He had been overconfident in his abilities, thought he could save he country and now this country was in the midst of a civil war, even after everything he had done. He didn't want to lose one of his friends again like he did in the war, he activated the power he wanted to conserve for future, the power that had made him the fastest man alive, and the power that would allow him to save one of his friends now.

He was clad in yellow flames, his clothes now an open jacket like golden cloak with six magatama markings around his neck like a necklace with Uzumaki swirl symbols on his outer shoulders and navel, he had a silhouette of two horns on his forehead as that of Rikudo Sennin. His air and headband ends were flowing as if they were underwater and his eyes were red with vertical slit like pupils. He had been forced to use this Kurama Chakra mode because if he hadn't then Vivi would most certainly die.

Running with speed that would be impossible for anyone to attain in this world no matter how much they worked on it every day he was with Vivi, who had seemingly accepted the fact that she would die, grabbing her and Carue under his shoulders he bolted away from there just as the rebel's horsed stomped the ground where they were standing and appeared deep within the city, all in the span of time it would take one to blink one's eye.

Vivi slowly opened her eyes and couldn't comprehend what had just happened, one moment she and Carue were about to die under the feet of the rebels and now they were inside the city? What happened and who was this person standing there holding her? Voicing her suspicions she asked,

"K-Kami-sama?!"

"Idiot it's me, Naruto" he said deactivating the cloak.

Vivi was dumbfounded, was Naruto even human?

"What happened back there, how did you save me?"

"Well, our plan was working well, then some idiots fired off the cannon." Naruto answered her, "Anyways, your father is in the palace with Chaka, go there you'll be safe. I'll handle this."

"O-okay" she said and Carue and her went towards the palace.

'Time to end this' he thought grimly.

 **XxX**

 **Whelp that's it. Enjoy the story and kindly read and review. In this story, Alabasta is one of the founding nations of the WG but chose not to live on Mariejois. So don't kill me for that cannon inconsistency. I'm thinking of Tashigi having feelings for Naruto, thought that doesn't mean that she will be in his romance interest list, unless someone convinces me to with a really good reason. Next chapter might end the Alabasta arc.**


	11. 10 After The Storm

**I do not own Naruto or One Piece.**

 **XxX**

Gadou was a man who had seen death; he was with the marines before he retired; he was the executioner of the marines; and he was the one who, along with his partner, executed Gol D. Roger in Logue Town. He later left the marine force to take care of his ailing father in Alabasta. His father didn't make it, but he left Gadou his shop in his will. Just like that, Gadou took over the family business and started living in Alabasta. After a number of years, he moved to a town called Yuba where his old friend Toto was mayor. Toto and his son, Kohza had helped build the city.

Yuba was an oasis town; a rest stop for weary travelers. But three years back, a drought started and there was no rain to replenish the oasis. Soon the town was deserted with only his friend Toto staying there to dig up the lost water. After the news that King Cobra had used dance powder came out, Gadou was justifiably enraged. In his fit of rage Gadou joined the Rebel force led by Toto's son, Kohza. They set up shop in Yuba, but had to move to Katorea later on as the supplies were dwindling. Gadou was named Second in command of the rebel army because Kohza and the others trusted him.

The rebels were unsure about attacking Alubarna and dethroning the king. The morning the king visited Katorea, kicked a child, and proceeded to boast about using dance powder in Alubarna was the last straw for Gadou. He spoke with Kohza and insisted that they attack the city to show the king they were serious. His insistence left them riding towards the city. He was in the front along with Kohza when they spotted the flag of peace raised. Kohza signaled for the rebels to stop. Gadou insisted that they ride in and take the city while they had the chance, but a few stern words from Kohza were enough to shut him up.

Gadou spotted the princess just as they were slowing down. She was trying to stop them by pleading to her friendship with Kohza, but thankfully for Gadou's plan Kohza hadn't spotted her.

As they were slowing down a cannon shell was fired at them. It landed among the rebel forces, followed by two more in close succession. There were no more shells fired after that, but stopping the firing wasn't enough as the rebels were again moving towards the city. A sandstorm kicked up and they lost visibility. Gadou rode on ahead of everybody, intending on riding princess down but…he didn't know if he was hallucinating, but she disappeared in a yellow flash. No matter, she would die when they took the city, he would make sure of that.

As they rode into the city, they were met with resistance in the form of royal guards and the marines. Why the marines were here?

The royal guards were a hassle to deal with and the marines they came along were very few.

The marine who was attacking him was generic looking, an average marine. He shouldn't be a problem thought Gadou. But before he could even make a move the marine disappeared. After that all he saw was black as he slumped to the ground.

 **XxX**

'Time to end this' he grimly thought.

Naruto quickly made hundreds of clones and mentally gave them a command to transform into a marine. All of them chose the same look and thus they now had hundreds of clones that looked like clones of a generic-looking marine.

As if a button had been pressed, all the marines went to battlefronts to inform the royal guards to defend the city.

In his Kurama Chakra mode, he sensed malice coming from a large portion of rebel army, as well as from a portion of royal guards. If he didn't tell the royal guards to defend the city then they would get slaughtered and the city would be pillaged. A major portion of rebels weren't here to dethrone the king; they were here to kill him. The man who had been riding ahead had seen Vivi and was aiming to kill her.

The clones that had been sent to inform the guards would then take part in the fights, and the majority of them would go towards the palace.

Half of the rebel army and some undercover Baroque Works agents in the royal army were knocked out with the help of Naruto's clones.

It was then that his first clone popped, and then various others in succession. It was Crocodile; they were trying to fight and none of the attacks were working on him. They couldn't use water ninjutsu as the air was arid. He saw glimpses of Luffy from various angles and a woman in purple clothing with a cowboy hat leaving the palace with King Cobra in tow, captured. So many clones bursting at once made him slow down, even though he was commanding his body to move fast.

The latest bit of memory feedback told him that the clones had managed to corner the woman when hands sprouted from the clone's shoulder blades and snapped his necks. The only clones that were not dying were the ones fighting the rebels; they were quite weak. At least one hundred of his clones had died at the hands of Crocodile. It couldn't be helped; he would have to beat Crocodile himself, whatever it took. The last flash of memory he got was of Luffy lying down on the ground mummified after his last attack had been dodged. Naruto quickened his pace towards the palace grounds, he wasn't worried about Cobra much because whoever that woman was, she had no evil intentions. He felt like he should know her…. maybe one of his clones had seen her somewhere in Alabasta before. Idiot.

He arrived at the palace grounds to find Luffy, he was fine except for a few scratches here and there; it was odd but a good thing. Luffy spotted him, ran towards Naruto and asked,

"Naruto! You saw where Crocodile went? I have to beat him."

"Let me do that Luffy, you nearly died at his hands…I think." Naruto told him

"No, I promised Vivi that I would defeat him, point me where he went." Luffy told him very passionately.

"You sure? If you can't this time, I will." Naruto said.

"Just point, I won't lose this time" Luffy said.

So Naruto pointed him in the last seen direction of Crocodile.

Naruto was leaving the palace by roof-hopping when his enhanced senses heard gun shot. This was bad because up till now they had been fighting with clubs and swords but now…now a guard had shot someone even though his clones had specifically stated not to kill, only incapacitate.

He quickly zeroed in on the guard who had fired. The guard had a manic grin on his face, and the one who had been shot was a kneeling Kohza, who had his hands up.

Naruto understood the situation and was enraged. Kohza had surrendered, and yet he had been shot. He saw the other guards preparing to shoot Kohza and reacted. He got in front of Kohza and in an instant the guards were down on the ground, a few bleeding from their noses. All of them sported the Baroque Works symbol on their left arms.

But the damage was done, the rebels who had stopped fighting when Kohza had surrendered were screaming bloody murder. They went berserk at seeing their leader shot for surrendering and started attacking royal guards with the intent to kill.

Naruto felt helpless at that moment. It was his duty to help people as a sage, and it was his duty as a marine too. He had seen needless bloodshed in the previous war for the sake of one man's ambition. This was same; people were being killed because one man wanted a throne. He didn't want this; he didn't want people to get slaughtered needlessly. He now realized it would be hard to bring peace to such a world; he had it easy back home. But that didn't mean he would back down; he wouldn't give up. His will to stop all the people from needlessly killing others manifested. He felt a strong force within his head, expanding and he allowed it, he didn't resist it. It culminated into a wave of will force that spread throughout the city with him at the center; as it travelled people started dropping down like flies, it didn't differentiate between a good-hearted person or evil, you would get knocked out either way.

 **XxX**

Tashigi and Smoker were leading the remaining forces from Rainbase to Alubarna to provide backup to Naruto, but they got a call from Marine Headquarters and were ordered to go back to G-3 base. Smoker protested but was told that he would be dismissed from marines if he didn't obey. He reluctantly went back to the ship, but not before relinquishing command to Tashigi and telling her to do whatever was necessary. He asked marines if anyone would volunteer to back Naruto up. Almost all of them raised their hands up, but Smoker only chose formidable marines and put them under Tashigi's command as he wasn't going to allow so many marines to lose their job because they did what they felt right.

So now Tashigi was at the gates of Alubarna, where they had been hijacked by the rebels. Just as she was going to order her marines to incapacitate the rebels, a generic-looking marine arrived and did their job for them.

"Tashigi-chan, what took you guys so long? The rebels are fighting and boss is helping in any way he can," the marine told her.

Tashigi was taken aback by this. Only Naruto called her Tashigi-chan, so why was this marine being so familiar? And was the person he was calling boss Naruto?

"Lead me to Naruto, and tell me about the situation here on the way."

"The rebels invaded after some Baroque Works members inside the rebel army shot at them. Right now boss is holding them down and succeeding. He asked me to tell you that the king has been captured and you should look for hi-" in mid-sentence the marine disappeared in a puff of smoke, which was surprising because normal humans didn't disappear in puffs of smoke. Just then a really strong force hit them; the pressure was indescribable really. Her mind was resisting it as much as it could, but the result was that she was sweating profusely and could feel her legs shake, after a moment it was too much for her too handle and she slipped into blissful unconsciousness. The marines didn't fare well either and dropped down seemingly knocked out.

 **XxX**

Nico Robin had been running for her life since she was eight years old. She couldn't stay in one place for more than a given time; always on the run, always looking behind her back. Truth be told she was ready to die that time the Chesskippa pirates had caught up to her, but then… then HE came and he saved her. She was saved by someone. She, who was hated by everyone, who was chased out of stores and houses once they knew her name; she was saved by him and she had been sure he would leave her too once he knew her name but no, he didn't desert her. He came by again, she wasn't even sure if he was human, not with the feats he was capable of. Sometimes she liked to think that God had sent her an angel to protect her; after all, he had appeared from the sky and disappeared into it the first time she met him. He himself told her that he would protect her.

He had given her a weapon; kunai it was called. He had told her to keep it on her forever, that it would bring him to her when she was in trouble, that he would protect her.

Had she done something wrong?! Had she made him angry? She didn't know what she had done wrong so that he wouldn't visit her after that. She had been in trouble so many times and was beaten by people for who she was, but she never lost hope. It dwindled down to a flickering flame, but she never lost it. That was, until 'that' happened. She lost all hope after 'that,' she didn't even want to see his face…. that LIAR!

But somewhere in the depths of her mind, that little girl still lived, the one that hoped, the one that was saved, the one that believed; but she was so deep within her that she didn't even know of her existence. But maybe a part, however tiny it might be, wanted him to come; maybe it was unintentional, but she still kept the kunai on her. She didn't want to lose that memory after all, but that wouldn't stop her from killing him for giving her false hope.

Now she was walking with a MAN, even touching him with her devil fruit ability made her skin crawl, but she endured; she needed to-to find the truth. She detested working with Crocodile, he was the worst kind of 'man,' but he was a means to an end. The king was leading her to the Tomb of Kings, to the poneglyph, to the truth.

The force that attacked them both mentally and physically hit them when the stairs leading down to the chamber appeared. Her will to decipher the poneglyph was greater than the force and enabled her to continue, but not without any side-effects. She was finding it hard to keep walking and fell down the stairs, taking the king along with her. They were both alright, just a few bumps and bruises. The king was sweating and shaking, but he led her towards the poneglyph nevertheless.

That was when Crocodile arrived and asked her to read out loud the location of the weapon, Pluton. She told him that the poneglyph said the history of the kingdoms and not the location of the weapon.

Crocodile, who had suspected this treachery from before, attacked her with a sand arm that was protruding from his left hand. That was when the pirate boy arrived and beat Crocodile after a long, arduous fight, hitting him through the bedrock that held the tomb even though he was poisoned.

The effects of that strong wave were still acting on her body, leaving her a trembling mess. She somehow passed the antidote to the king and he administered it to the pirate boy. What was the use of that, she thought. They were going to die anyways because the roof was going to collapse.

It was at that moment that she realized that she would die alone there, no one would save a villain like her. She clutched the kunai inside her coat pocket, and thought that maybe now she could meet her angel. How ironic it was that she, who had been running for her life for all those years, was now welcoming her death. She closed her eyes, seemingly accepting the end, but she felt someone trying to lift her up. It was the pirate boy; he was straining just to carry the king but he was trying to save her too.

'NO! Let me die, let me meet him,' she wanted to scream but the base human part that wants to live overwhelmed her thoughts. Now she was just thankful for being saved, even if the odds were that all three of them would die here.

The boy somehow managed to get them out before the tomb fell upon itself. It was raining now, and people were waking up from their slumber. Now was the time to make her escape. She left without turning back.

 **XxX**

After the explosion of the willforce happened, most of the people were knocked out and those who weren't were in no position to fight. Vivi was one of the few left standing, for her will to save her country overcame the power of willforce. She managed to stay standing by taking support of Naruto.

Naruto couldn't describe the feeling that came over him, it was like killing intent but so….so…pure? It didn't have any malicious intent in it like killing intent did. It was just pure force that exploded out of his head. He had a severe headache as if a ship had been smashed into his head, when the explosion of willforce happened all his clones popped, and the memory feedback of hundreds of clones was a bitch. He tried to emit it again but only succeeded in looking constipated. Then he felt Vivi and asked her what happened.

It was then that Vivi managed to tell him about the bomb. He started his search for it along with the remaining Straw-Hats, at least those who were left standing like Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper. The Straw-Hats search was turning up nothing and that moment Naruto decided to use his speed to speed search the city. He donned his telltale golden cloak again and blitz-searched the city. It was near the clock tower that he felt the passive hatred. It was miniscule, but it was there. Acting on his suspicions he ran up the side of the tower and entered it by clock structure.

There, he saw two people lying on the ground with an armed canon. The canon had a bomb in it, and it was time based. With only a few minutes left on the bomb, Naruto got an idea. He fished out a blank scroll and began writing seals on it; a minute later he held a special Uzumaki sealing scroll capable of sealing almost anything.

He sealed the bomb within it and destroyed the seal, which was one problem taken care of.

The bomb would've gone off any minute now, he got out of the clock tower to see Crocodile come flying out of ground from the direction Luffy had gone. It started raining and people were waking up from their slumber.

He zeroed in on Luffy's direction and started moving there. He reached the area to see Luffy collapsed on the ground along with the king. The woman in purple was walking away from them, limping. He was just a few seconds away from calling to her when….

 **XxX**

Tashigi was a child again, by the river where she used to sit and lament in sorrow. Ever since her friends had ostracized her, she had no one. Children could be so cruel sometimes but adults would know better… right? Well NO!

Tashigi's mother and her friends had started ignoring her existence. Her mother had lost faith in the idea that Tashigi would marry into a rich family, and the rest of the adults scoffed at the idea of a swordswoman or avoided her like the plague because her father was a pirate.

Theirs was a town that prided itself on being an elite one, everybody was rich and kids were all Ojou-sama and Waka-sama type. On the other side of the island lived the poor and the unfortunate, people who worked every day just to be able to buy food for that night. But not the people in Tashigi's town, they were literally like nobles of the island, government was run by them and they hired policemen from other islands so there was no chance of uprising among the police. Their town was called Mumba and the island was Twilight Island. It was an island in East Blue and shared too many similarities with another kingdom on another island in East Blue.

In her mindscape she was surrounded by grey, faceless people; they did nothing but whisper harsh words to her and throw things at her. She could hear them all, things about her father, about her family, and about her dreams. She bore them all silently, but inside she was on the verge of breaking down.

Then the people started shuffling and you could hear a man's voice saying 'let me ahead.' She perked up; had her father come to save her?! There was tiny bit of hope there but she knew he wouldn't be coming back. Then a blonde man in a blue t-shirt and orange overcoat broke through the crowd of people and came to her side. He saw what they were doing and clenched his fist in anger. He then shielded her from the things being thrown at her with his body by hugging her.

She could almost remember the man; his identity was just out of her reach. She felt safe in this man's embrace. He was warm and full of safety, she thought. The tears cascaded down her face; not in sorrow or shame, but in hope. Hope that she was not alone, that someone at least cared for her. She felt the warmth slip away as the man was torn from her. She was pulled apart from him, and then she was all alone again. It was all black; darkness surrounded her. A cold feeling of peace swept through her, and then she opened her eyes and found marines standing over her, looking at her in concern.

Then she realized that she was lying on the ground, she racked her brain for the last thing she remembered, that she was heading in a particular direction. Her clothes were muddy and wet from the rain.

The marines were looking at her expectantly. They seemed confused as well.

"How long have I been out?" she asked one of them.

"I-I don't know; we woke up just a few seconds before you." He spoke, a bit afraid of her.

She surveyed the surroundings and saw the floor littered with rebels and royal guards. She commanded the marines to restrain the rebels and then took off to find Naruto.

After about a minute, she managed to find him. He was standing over the two bodies, one was Cobra and the other was a boy in red vest and a…a Straw-Hat?

Then realization dawned over her, this was Straw Hat Luffy. Had Naruto had managed to catch him?

She looked at Naruto and then she had an epiphany, the man in her dreams, the one that had saved her looked so much Naruto…he was Naruto!

Then things started to make sense, he was her friend. He would of course protect her but…. but then why had she felt the warm feeling in her chest? Did she see him as more than a friend?

Argh! This was confusing. Anyways, she had to capture the pirate before he woke up.

Naruto was looking at the receding figure of a woman. She called out to him,

"Naruto!" grabbing his attention. He looked at her in relief and then looked back at the street again, the woman was gone in the split second their eyes met.

"Good job Naruto, you'll surely get a promotion for this. You captured someone who even eluded Smoker-taichou." She said smiling brightly, pointing at the body of the unconscious pirate.

"Have I Tashigi? Have I really caught him?" He asked her almost whispering.

"Wh-What do you mean Naruto?" she was a bit taken aback, out of all things that surprised her, him not calling her Tashigi-chan was the one.

"He, he almost gave his life to save this country from a problem the government had created. While, we marines, were ineffective to stop it. Where are the reinforcements anyways? Wait…I know, the world government ordered them to return, didn't they," he asked her.

Tashigi was speechless. Why was her Naruto defending the pirate? Sure he helped the country, but wasn't it their duty to capture the pirates? He spoke again,

"I am not going to capture him, I am simply going to ignore their incursion here and hope for the best. You might be my superior, Tashigi-chan, but I am asking this of you as a favor. Let them go this time. They only helped the country, and if you take them in, the country might start disliking the marines. It's your choice, but I hope you choose to let them go for all the good they have done."

She watched as he helped the king up, and they both started to carry the pirate boy towards the palace.

She didn't know what to say, but she decided to heed his words. The government needed to have a good relationship with the kingdom, thus taking the pirates who helped them to HQ would be a grave error. She couldn't help but feel apprehensive about doing so. Her thoughts switched back to Naruto and she found a blush crawling up her face as she remembered how she thought of him as 'hers'. The warm feeling had returned when he had called her Tashigi-chan again. She didn't know what to make of this feeling. She never had experienced this before.

She returned to report back to Smoker and await further orders. She was contemplating whether or not to tell her taichou about the pirates' presence here.

 **XxX**

 **(A few minutes ago)**

In an alley nearby, Nico Robin was sitting on the muddied ground in shock, not caring if her clothes got dirtied. She had heard 'his' name. Was he here? She didn't want to wait and see as that girl who called him was undoubtedly a marine. But how could he be here? And if he was here then why hadn't he reached out to her? She gripped the kunai strongly, enough to draw blood. NO! A dark voice inside her whispered, he had abandoned her, just like everybody else. He deserved her hatred; because of him 'that' incident happened. She couldn't fathom what she would've done if she had met him face-to-face, latch onto him and ask why he didn't come? Or hurt him for not coming?!

She was a mess and she needed time to think, she left walking in the direction of Straw-Hats anchored ship.

 **XxX**

 **Naruto had Haō-shoku no Haki and a very strong one at that, though he doesn't know how to control it. The reason Chopper and Usopp weren't affected was because at the moment of Haki's release, they were out of the city limits.**

 **This chapter took a lot of time as I had lost inspiration but thanks to my two of my betas I was able to finish this.**

 **Lightningblade49 helped a lot with the plot and so did The God's eye. Thanks to KizunaUzumaki for helping me out with sentence structure and flow of the story.**

 **Next chapter might take more time than this as I'm not feeling motivated enough and I have to study for my HSC exams.**

 **Have a nice day readers :)**


	12. 11 The Meeting

**I do not own either One Piece or Naruto**

 **OoO**

Naruto was walking with Luffy and Cobra in tow, to the palace. He thought back on his confrontation with Tashigi; he didn't want to choose between his friends, but he was sure if push came to shove he would've fought with the marines for their freedom even if that meant losing the job.

Truth be told he wasn't even sure if he wanted to stay as a marine, ever since Cobra had told him about the truth of Tequila Wolf, he was disgusted by the mere thought of it. He hated people in high power that treat others like scum.

He had yet to decide whether or not to leave the marine services, from what he had heard, marines were under the thumb of the world government, theirs to use for whatever nefarious purposes they might think of. His impression of world government had changed drastically, not that he had any excellent views towards them before, but still…

They arrived at the palace and there the king was met with a scene of three similar looking marines that he thought were triplets setting the unconscious member of the Straw-Hats and the Chaka and Pell down. The blonde-haired, suit-wearing pirate was arguing with a marine over how and why he was carrying Nami-chan in an overly familiar way, and by the looks of it the blonde guy was getting on the marine's nerves. Looking over at Naruto, the marine quickly walked over to Naruto ditching the arguing man.

"Boss! We got all the people involved in the Crocodile fiasco and also Nami-chan."

"WHY ARE YOU BEING SO FAMILIAR WITH HER?" Sanji called him out.

Ignoring Sanji, Naruto asked, "Good, where are Vivi and Kohza?"

"As people were starting to get up, Kohza explained to them the truth behind this all." The marine spread his arms accentuating what he said. "Kohza, who had gotten a few scrapes and bruises along with the bullet wound was taken to a nearby medic center. Vivi opted to stay with him. She asked me to tell you to meet her before leaving."

"Okay, I will surely meet her, if that is all, you guys are dismissed" Naruto asked.

"Okay boss," the marine said and went out of the room and Cobra could swear he heard the sound of something popping, after a few seconds the other two marines perked up and exited the room.

Naruto set Luffy down on the makeshift bed made of pillows. On the way to the palace Cobra had told him what transpired in the Tomb of Kings. After hearing that, he had healed Luffy to the best of his abilities on the way, but Luffy needed medical attention for the damage the poison had wrecked on his insides."

He went over and sat by the prone form of Nami, she had cuts and bruises on her body, which indicated she had been in a fight or was attacked. Naruto ran his hands just above her body, his hands clad in green medical chakra.

The cuts and bruises started to fade away. Next he went over to Chopper and started healing his injuries because the sooner Chopper healed, the earlier the Straw-Hats could leave this place because he wasn't sure if Smoker would sit still knowing the pirates were within his reach.

He carried out a diagnostic jutsu on Usopp, but he wasn't good with setting and healing bone matter so he would leave that to Chopper.

Everyone who witnessed Naruto healing was looking at him speechless. Zoro voiced his thoughts.

"Oi Naruto, if you were a doctor then why didn't you tell us that before?!"

"I'm not a doctor Zoro, I'm just a glorified field medic. You guys needed a person who would be able to heal things other than superficial injuries, so that's why I never let it out that I knew healing techniques, you guys never needed any medical help during our times together...well except you on Nami's village but that good doctor took care of you so…." He let that hang in

It seemed like that was a good enough explanation for Zoro who went back to looking at his captain solemnly.

Naruto left the room, leaving everyone else to their devices. They needed some time with themselves, this was their first decisive victory in Grand Line and this would be the incident that would change their footing in the pirate world and marine worlds alike.

He mentally went through everything that had happened up until now, how the marines were called back and his squadron left to fend for themselves, how there were undercover agents of Baroque works in both armies and how they had almost toppled the kingdom. One thing he couldn't put his thumb quite on was how everyone, be they marines or part of the respective armies were knocked out.

At the same moment that had happened he had felt a strong force bubbling within his mind, it was akin to killing intent but was not the same. It was more powerful and lacked the bloodlust of the killing intent, almost like a purer form of it. And he had lost control of his clones too, they had disappeared as soon as the explosion of that metaphysical force had happened.

That phenomenon that he had used would be quite useful in crowd control or when he was facing great numbers of enemies, but it seemed like it was a double-edged sword seeing as he would lose control of his clone technique.

He filed that information away for later use and would research that phenomenon later.

 **OoO**

Vivi was sitting by the bed Kohza was in, he was out of danger as the bullet had missed any vital spots but he needed bed rest.

There was shuffling outside of the tent and she heard 'him'

"Ma-ma-ma! Vivi-Hime, are you inside?" Igaram asked.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he was glomped by Vivi and they both fell to the ground.

"Igaram! You-you're alive!"

"Uhmmn" a voice came out from between her and Igaram.

It was a boy who was beaten…. badly. He was trapped between Igaram's torso and Vivi's bosom.

Taking notice of this, Vivi quickly got up and helped them up.

"Th-thanks!" the boy squeaked out.

"Vivi-hime, this is Kappa. He saw one of the Baroque Works member transform into Cobra-sama. He was attacked by other members to keep him quiet, but he survived and came here to testify and help end the war."

Vivi looked at the boy in question, he seemed to shrink before her calculative gaze, then she softened her expression and she smiled at him.

"What you're willing to do is a brave thing, you have my gratitude, and even if they don't know it, the people's gratitude. This might potentially end the war for good," Vivi told the boy.

The rebels had been standing down but the tension was still high in the air, many people refused to believe that they had been played like fools.

Vivi instructed Igaram to see to the boy's injuries and then take him to the palace for the night. She exited the tent for some much needed air.

The arrival of Kappa gave her much needed hope; hope that the country could get past this incident, this disaster that Crocodile brought upon them, turning families against each other and tearing the country apart.

Things seemed more vibrant to her with the arrival of Kappa. The city was in a better shape than what she had expected, thanks to Naruto and his marines. The Straw-Hats were instrumental in stopping and defeating the Baroque Works members and their leader. All in all, this was one of the best outcomes she could have ever hoped for.

Today, Kappa would testify and it would be the end of this nightmare,

Walking through the city roads, Vivi ran into Naruto, who was talking over his Den-Den Mushi.

"Naruto! How are Luffy-san, Nami-san and Usopp-san?"

"Oh, hey Vivi-hime, they are fine. Chopper is working on them." Naruto said sliding the Den-Den Mushi back into his coat pocket.

"I don't mean to be nosy but who were you talking to?"

"Oh that! I was just talking to Tashigi-chan, she is on her way to report to Smoker-san, and I fear I must leave soon too. The marines will be coming after the Straw-Hats now and there is no way for me to stave them off any longer," Naruto said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Well they don't know that Luffy and his friends are with us, do they?" Vivi asked worriedly.

"Well…uh…Tashigi-chan knows," he nervously said, "She was going to take Luffy in, but I persuaded her to leave them alone. But I don't think that Smoker-taichou is going to listen to me."

"What?! That bastard, after we saved his life he is still trying to take us in?!"

"You saved Smoker's life?!" Naruto asked, bewildered.

"Yes we did." She then summarized how Crocodile had lured them in a trap and had flooded their makeshift prison and how Zoro had saved his life on Luffy's orders.

"Wow, only Luffy could help his enemy like this, well I would've done the same to be honest, Smoker-taichou is a good man after all, just his perception towards the pirates is skewed."

"But he is being ungrateful. They saved him, and yet he is going to go after them." Vivi said, slightly annoyed.

"He is not, he is a man with strong ideals which compel him to follow his duty; he's not being ungrateful because he wants to, he in good sense cannot let go of his duty, he cannot let pirates roam free because that conflicts with his marine ideals." Naruto defended Smoker.

"We still have at least a day before taichou gets the news about the pirates being here and he returns midway from his journey to the base. I bought us enough time from Tashigi-chan for us to get them out, she will eventually tell him that the King and I helped out Luffy, and it won't take a genius to figure out that the Straw-Hats will be in the palace."

"Oh…" she sounded nervous, "Naruto, come to the palace tonight then, we're throwing a party for you guys."

"Sure-sure, I should now go and see to how my marines are handling the rebels." Naruto told her as he started walking away, but not before giving her a dazzling smile.

"Wait, since you are going to see to the rebels, please tell them that everything will be explained to them in evening. A boy saw one of the Baroque works members transform into Father and he is the key in helping end the war." Vivi asked of him.

After giving her a curt nod as a sign of affirmation, he went on his way.

 **OoO**

The rebels were being held in camp on the outer skirts of the city, almost all the rebels had been captured, and Naruto saw to it that the Baroque Works members were being held in prison in the palace so that they wouldn't be able to sow discord among the innocent though bloodthirsty rebels.

They had been provided with food and water and were been treated far too nicely for someone who rose against their king, but it wasn't their fault that they had been played, that they were just pawns in this game of one man's ambition.

Naruto announced to them that the proof of the King's innocence would be provided this evening and that they had to keep order.

He reminded his marines and the Royal army that the rebels were to be treated as humanely as possible with a stern warning.

It was when he was about to leave that a marine called him. He had stars in his eyes and was quivering just standing in front of Naruto. Naruto recognized him, he was one of the Chief Petty Officers of the base G-3.

"S-Sir, I'm J-Jo-Jonah. It's an h-honor working with y-you." He said passionately.

"Thank you Jonah, it's an honor working with you guys too. You are so passionate about your work; I like that in a person, and please call me Naruto." Naruto spoke his mind.

Jonah blushed hard at this, getting complimented by his idol, even if indirectly.

He then started rummaging around his satchel and out came a wanted poster.

Naruto could only read the name from the angle that he was standing, 'Nico Robin'.

'That name again, I feel like I've heard that name somewhere, feel like it's important…'

"Sir Naruto, under yours and my commands, our platoon has captured most of the Baroque works members and we've succeeded in apprehending the Shichibukai, Crocodile. He's currently in the Palace dungeon and his and other devil fruit users' powers have been suppressed with the help of seastone cuffs." Jonah informed him without stuttering.

"Good job Jonah, I'm sure the king would be thankful to you for apprehending them, and it's just Naruto, we are of the same rank after all." Naruto said to him as he patted his head, which looked weird to the passersby because Naruto looked to be about eighteen years old and Jonah was in his late twenties.

"What I wanted to tell you Si-Naruto was that one Baroque Works member seems to have escaped, she was known as Miss All Sunday or as the world knows her, Nico Robin – The Demon of Ohara."

He spoke again, "Yes Naruto, imagine the prestige our base would garner if we captured her and sent her to impel down. It's not like she doesn't deserve it, she sank six warships by herself and what's more?! She was among the group of people who were trying to find the Ancient Weapons to destroy the world." He babbled on.

He handed Naruto the poster of her and said, "We just have her picture from when she was eight years old, she has eluded us for so long but we are so close to capturing her!"

When Naruto finally looked at the wanted poster, his blood ran cold.

He knew who this person was, after all, he had saved her from those pirates that day, promised to protect her…

What had happened for her to end up like this? Or was she a wanted person to begin with? But that didn't matter to him because she was so…so full of innocence, and so sad that even Kurama had said that she was one of the loneliest people they had ever met with, another being Shion.

He needed time to think, a part of his whole purpose for coming to this world was to find her. Now she was so close, now he could see the similarities between her and that hatted woman. They were the same, he was so close to reaching her then when she had been saved by Luffy.

No! She was still in Alabasta; he could still find her now. Excusing himself, he, with a quick use of Shunshin, travelled to the Palace, to his room where he could think in solace.

He got into a meditative pose and entered Sage Mode just enough so that he could sense everything, ever so slowly expanding his sensory reach. He knew that when he was in Sage Mode he could sense everyone in the town or even the world if given the time, so he scanned the city inch-by-inch so that there was no chance of overlooking her.

She wasn't in the city, so he expanded his reach around the city and outwards. He could sense several life forms, some big some small and then he found her and something else. The chakra signature was faint, almost faded but it was there. It was his Hiraishin Kunai that he had left with her, but there was something wrong with it. It wasn't giving a strong enough signal for him to pick up like he usually would. The sealing matrix seemed...wrong.

Deciding to look into that matter and meet the girl he had been looking forward to meeting, Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash.

 **OoO**

Nico Robin had been walking towards the Straw-Hats ship for hours, she couldn't bear to stay in Alubarna anymore, not with him and the presence of the marines there.

She still couldn't believe that he was here, in Alabasta of all place, and what's more?! He was a marine.

She couldn't fathom how he still looked the same, after all these years he hadn't changed at all. A part of her wanted to meet him, ask him where he had been and another part wanted nothing to do with him. She wanted to forsake the very idea of him, wanted to claw his eyes out for abandoning her. She was torn between these very two ideas. She touched the kunai, which was dangling by her waist.

Unhooking it, she brought it up to her eye level, examining the seals on it. She had almost lost this in the fire, she had almost died trying to retrieve this and all for what? He never came for her when she needed him, he had said that this would protect her but all it did was remind her of him.

After the fire, the paper on the kunai had burnt off the edges, she had even gone so far as to painstakingly recreate the symbols and stick it over the burnt part for all the good it did.

She wanted to throw it away and move on with her life but a small part of her held hope that he would come, but now that she knew that he was in here, in this country, and he still hadn't tried to reach out to her. Overcome with anger, she threw the kunai out in the sand but something weird happened as the kunai was sailing in the air, a yellow flash of light appeared and in front of her standing was him.

And then she saw red…

 **OoO**

Naruto appeared in a yellow flash and grabbed the kunai midair.

Standing in front of him was her, the girl he had saved once, Nico Robin.

A myriad of emotions flickered across her face and then…she lunged at him with righteous fury.

He dodged a swipe that would've taken his eye out, another slash with the three pronged kunai that would've gutted him, a punch that he saw coming from a mile away, and then a slap that he didn't dodge.

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes and when he didn't dodge her slap, she punched him in the stomach then another slap then she started hitting his chest with both hands, the intensity of the hits lessened with each consecutive hit until she was a sobbing mess. Her body would've crumpled down on the ground if not for him holding onto her.

"W-Why?" she whispered, "Why did you abandon me? Did I do something to make you angry?! Why-why didn't you come back?!" she asked bitterly.

"You said that YOU WOULD PROTECT ME! WAS THAT JUST A LIE?! WAS I JUST A WHIM FOR YOU?!" she asked, her voice hoarse with screaming.

She looked at him for his answers but none came.

Naruto could feel the anger building up again, and he let it run its course until it subsided. She pulled on his wavy blond hair savagely, kicked him in the nuts, slashed his chest, and much more.

At the end of it, she held strands of Naruto's golden hair in her hands, he bled from lacerations across his chest, and his eye had been swollen shut. She sat there with her knees to her chest, her hands bloodied, and crying.

"Did that quell your anger?" he asked warmly without a hint of anger in his voice.

"No!" she whispered back.

"What will?" he asked tenderly.

"I-I don't know." She said as she looked at him.

He was smiling, not a contemptuous smile but a gentle, warm smile. She remembered this smile from the first time she had met him. She could almost forget all the pain of running away from all those years…almost, but the dark voice that was in the corners of her mind screamed at her to not fall into that trap again.

He picked up the kunai that she had dropped at his feet, examining it. He found the fault, the sealing array was not right, it was crudely drawn, and the symbols that controlled the range was incomplete and the sealing paper was different with the seal itself being useless since the kanji hadn't been infused with chakra. Feeling something off, he peeled the seal off and noticed the original seal beneath it. The summoning seal was intact, but the sealing symbols that allowed him to sense the kunai were incomplete due to charring, as if they had been in a fire.

She saw him looking at the kunai, as if he was trying to find the faults in it. She couldn't believe it, her onetime savior was in front of her; the one she had wanted to see for so long. She almost felt guilty for attacking him…almost, but she justified it by thinking that he deserved that and so much more. She remembered how she had went into that blazing inferno of a ship to retrieve that kunai because she didn't want to miss the chance of meeting him, the one person who hadn't looked at her through hate filled eyes, the one person who had helped her out of the goodness of his heart…but maybe that's because he didn't know who she was, but now that he was a marine…now that he knew, would he look at her the same again? After all she was the Demon of Ohara, she thought bitterly.

She was roused out of her thoughts when that man asked her, "This kunai…what happened to this kunai? The sealing matrix is not right."

A tense silence followed.

"It got caught in a fire." She mumbled to herself but Naruto heard her.

Naruto just nodded in contemplation, he didn't know what to make of this situation. He knew something bad had happened to her in his absence, what it was he didn't know, but something very bad if her reaction was that savage.

He could see that she had tried to draw the seal back after it had been caught in fire. Though she made a mistake, it was still commendable that she had managed to recreate it to that extent. He didn't have the heart to tell her that it was because she drew the symbol that allowed him to sense the kunai incorrectly that he wasn't able to come back.

She had so much hate and anger filled in her that the only one he could compare her to was Sasuke, while not on his level, it was still somewhere up there.

As he started walking forward, he notice that he was in pain, he was bleeding from the cuts on his chest and the vision from his left eye was becoming blurry. Channeling Kurama's chakra through his body, he felt the skin on his chest regenerate, the swelling over his eyes reduce to nothingness, and the pain in his special place go away; he was all healed up in mere seconds. Though his skin regenerated, his shirt was in tatters, so he tore the thing off.

He walked towards her and offered her a hand, but she looked at him as if she wanted him to burn to cinders.

Not giving up on her, he plopped himself down beside her.

"What do you want?" she asked him as she looked at him through puffed up eyes.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you might have needed me the most, but I can promise you that I will be there from now on when you need me." He paused letting that sink in, "The reason I wasn't able to come here was because the kunai was damaged, a part of sealing formula unsalvageable."

She kept staring at him, her eyes glazed and then the realization sunk in.

She wanted to cry now but no tears would come, after all this time…it was her fault? Because she had been careless that one time that that he hadn't come, he wasn't able to come?

She felt hopelessly lost in her mind, she had gone through all that because it was all her fault…

Before she could start blaming herself for all this, Naruto spoke up.

"It-It's not your fault….I should've been mindful…should've given you a warded kunai or at least left a body seal on you but I didn't, it's all on me, so please don't blame yourself. Take your anger out on me if you want but don't blame yourself, you didn't know how to seal worked, you even went so far as to draw the seal back on but I wasn't able to come." Naruto said as he joined his hands together and bowed his head.

'Yes! It's his fault, he should've left something as a precaution if he wasn't able to come but….but he didn't and as a result all that happened to us. All that pain, the humiliation was all because this man had been careless' the dark voice whispered, trying its best to survive because if Robin forgave this man then it would cease to exist. Fortunately for the darkness that resides within all humans, Robin seemed to accept that reasoning for her mind wasn't ready to accept that it might've been her fault for him not coming, after all it was easy for someone to hate on someone else than accept that all their life, the person they had been hating on was sort of not the reason things happened to them.

"Yes, it's your fault! You shouldn't have left me at all." She all but screamed at him.

"I had to go, at that time I wasn't ready to interfere with other worlds, nor could I take you with me, my kind of life, the life of a hermit wouldn't have suited a young child such as you." Naruto explained.

"IS THAT YOUR REASON?! If you had taken me with you, at least I would've had a friend instead of living a life on the run, if you had taken me that…..that incident wouldn't have happened." She mumbled the last part to herself as fresh tears started to flow.

Naruto heard the last part and spaced out, his mind still comprehending the information.

What had happened? What was the incident that she spoke of? Why did her chakra feel so dark when she said that? Questions like that were zipping around in Naruto's head.

"Ro-Robin….what happened?!" he asked with an emotional edge to his voice.

"You want to know?! You want to know what happened because I trusted in you?" she asked with a manic grin, "THIS HAPPENED." Turning her back to him, she undid the straps on her clothes and showed him her bare back, there in the center of her back was a symbol branded onto her, it resembled a hoof of some animal.

"Who branded this symbol onto you Robin?" he asked through gritted teeth, his anger getting better of him, "Wh-What is the meaning of that symbol?"

"They branded me as a slave, I was not a person in their eyes, just a thing….a thing to satisfy their needs….and this…this thing didn't protect me at all, I escaped through sheer luck by myself." She said gripping the kunai hard enough to draw blood.

" **Who did this?"** he asked, unconsciously channeling Kurama's raw chakra, his eyes became red and pupils turned into slits, his whisker marks that normally made him look like a cute animal darkened to give a visage of a ferocious beast.

Robin, who was still holding the kunai flinched, it was as if a pressure was coming down upon her, making it hard to breath, the kunai was dropped.

"T-the Ce-Celestial Dragons." She said through labored breaths.

His closed his eyes, Naruto felt rage bubbling inside him, the kind of rage he hadn't felt in over a century.

Then a sudden sense of serenity came over him and he noticed that he was in a different plane of existence, more specifically his mindscape. He was standing in water and in front of him was the Sage of the Six Paths, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki or as Naruto liked to call him, the Old Man. He was sitting in a lotus position, floating over the water with a shakujo in his hand.

All the anger Naruto had in him fizzled out until he was left with nothing but peace in his heart.

"Naruto, you have achieved peace in your world, why meddle with this world's affairs?" Hagoromo asked.

"You know why Old Man, I can't believe that you are asking this question. At first I just wanted to live a peaceful life and then pass away, but then I discovered that I was not aging thanks to the chakra of all the Bijuus and my own Uzumaki life force, I contended myself with the fact that since I'm gonna be around for a long time, I might as well maintain the peace that we all helped create, but then the incident with Kumo happened and I was forced to live away from civilization so as not to disrupt the balance.

"Then, after living in isolation and disguising myself as a monk, I came to realize that humans at their core are greedy and selfish beings, they crave power and much more. The peace that we created would only last as long as they didn't have the temptation of power around them. That's why I place all the Bijuus in another dimension and went back to elemental nations as it was home after all. But I myself was not exempt from being selfish and it is my selfishness that caused me to come to this world and adopt it, because I got bored there in elemental nations, the only ones for company were animals and the Toads and you can only eat so much of Shima baa-chans food until you want to die, don't tell her that though.

"I came here to change this world, to make it a better place since I'm not needed back home. Don't tell me that you expected me to be around in elemental nations lollygagging while the people here suffered. If you say that I am the Child of Prophecy and I would bring peace, then it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to you if I did just that. I have created bonds with people here and I wish for them to live in a better world. I hope that answers your question." Naruto finished his explanation as he looked at The Sage with half lidded eyes.

The Sage was silent for several second then a smile came upon his face.

"You haven't changed, have you Naruto? I am happy that Asura's will still lives on in you. I came here just to test your ambition and I'm happy with your answer.

"But I must warn you that beings beyond your comprehension aren't happy with this decision of yours. But since they cannot interfere with the mortal world directly, they will do so through other means. You don't have to worry about them for now as you haven't yet changed the fate of this world, but when your actions start making ripples and those ripples, waves, then they will act. Some of these beings were born out of hatred but also out of necessity, it will be a perilous journey and it's dangerous to go out there alone, take this."

Hagoromo said as he motioned for Naruto to raise his right hand, he then placed the mark of Yang sage chakra, the mark of sun on his right hand palm.

"This will grant you the ability to gather Six Paths Sage Chakra, the other requirement being having all the Bijuus inside your body, not just their chakra but them as whole. Doing that will make you a pseudo Juubi jinchuriki that will ascend even the form that Madara achieved. I'm telling you this because these beings will come at you, and you'll need everything you have to repel them, some aren't happy that you sealed my mother again as she was one of these beings herself. Not all of them are vile, some are good just as some are bad."

"Gramps, who are these 'beings' you speak of? And I'm not sure if I want to restrict the freedom of Kurama and others just to be able to 'repel' these people." Naruto said.

"They refer to themselves as Gods, or Demons in the case of the vile ones. I know you don't want to keep my children cooped up and restrict their freedom, but I spoke with them and they agreed wholeheartedly with my suggestion, they want to be with you as in Kurama's words ' **Father, tell that brat not to worry about us, me and my siblings have grown bored of this place and want to destr- *ehrm* change the pace of our life and don't tell him but we miss that brat.** '" The last part was shown in the water's reflection.

"They are growing restless so at least go visit them." Hagoromo added, "We'll meet again when its time, I'll be watching, but for now, you've got a young lady to take care of." He said and just like that, Naruto was in front of Robin again, she was staring at him…relieved.

Remembering what they were talking about, "Robin, I am sorry that this happened to you, but I promise that I will make this world a better place and it's a promise of a lifetime." He said as he took her hand in his, he noticed that she flinched at that action.

A green glow appeared around his palms and the cut she had inflicted upon herself healed up without leaving a scar.

"I can only ask for your forgiveness and hope that you can forgive me. To start with, let me take you to my friends, they can protect you and help you when I'm not around…." He let that offer hang in.

Robin was contemplating going with him, but she didn't know who his friends were…. was this a ploy to arrest her? After all he was a marine….

"Cobra-sama told me that you helped Luffy, I'm taking you there to his crew…you'll be safe with him."

She knew the pirate boy and his crew, she was going towards their ship after all….maybe she could trust this man this once, after all he had saved her that once….maybe he would keep his promise now….so many maybes.

It was getting late too, she couldn't journey now as it was already night and she was so tired too. She looked at him, nodded and thought, 'He broke my trust yet I'm here trusting him again, how hopeless can I be' and just a she finished thinking that, and they both disappeared in a yellow flash.

 **OoO**

 **Well….who spotted the Legend of Zelda reference?**

 **This is it, I'll try to update by February but my exams are near…I'm writing this in the breaks that I take from studying.**

 **Also authors feed on reviews so don't let me starve! Read and Review and most importantly enjoy.**

 **Have a nice day :)**


	13. 12 Jealousy?

**I own neither One Piece nor Naruto**

 **OoO**

Vivi had been having a good day today. It seemed that she had been paranoid for no reason, she even had went so far as to provide Kappa with Royal Guards to escort him.

Wherever he went, they went with him because she feared that some rogue Baroque Works member, still undercover in the rebel base, would make an attempt on the poor boy's life but she clearly had underestimated Naruto's marines intelligence division.

They had been successful in rooting out any and all Baroque Works members and placing them in the palace dungeons for until Smoker arrived.

The weird thing about the Intelligence division was that all of them looked similar, almost as if they were clones of each other…..no way that was true…it was just her paranoid mind playing tricks on her…right?

Anyways, the point was that Kappa had testified and provided proof of Crocodile and his lackeys' involvement in the civil war and the rebels had calmed down. It also helped that most of the rebels knew Kappa. Add Kohza's reassurances and all was good, it was all uneventful really.

She also had gotten the good news that all the Straw-Hats had been healed and Terracotta had informed her that the party was ready to begin.

She trudged back home and was not surprised to see that Luffy had already started eating and the party was now underway.

Even though Usopp was bandaged from head to toe, it seemed that Chopper had given him the go ahead to move around because he was there standing on the table, and telling bold li-ehrm-legends about himself to the Royal Soldiers, Chopper seemed to be lapping everything up that he said. Zoro was in a drinking contest with some other soldiers and Pell and it seemed to be a tough competition.

Sanji was, as usual, flirting with the girls from the palace household.

She was missing something….Nami! Where was she?!

After half an hour of searching, she found Nami standing by the railing on the Palace roof overlooking the city with a sake bottle in her hands, but something felt off.

Nami was….crying

OoO

Nami had just woken up from her slumber and she felt rejuvenated. The cuts she had suffered during her fight with Miss Doublefinger were absent, there were no scars either. 'Was this all a dream?' she thought, but then realized that she was on a bed, and the room looked too…expensive?

Her clothes were full of holes, thanks to Miss Doublefinger but fortunately a set of clothes had been set down for her by the into the new set of clothes, she moved towards the sole door in the room but not before checking herself out in the mirror.

The door led into a long hallway, which had balconies at frequent intervals. Stepping into one of the balconies, she took in the view of the city, Alubarna. She deduced that she was in the palace what with Royal Guards manning the entrance to the building she was in or it might be a prison but she doubted that. The city looked so lively even during the night, people were out in the streets celebrating something…what? She didn't know.

She could feel the cold desert wind caressing her skin, the stars shining above her and moonlight shrouding her in its soft glow. If one were to look up at Nami, they would assume she was some kind of goddess because of the heavenly beauty she seemed to be radiating in the moonlight.

She stood there for a long time, just drinking in the view and feeling the cold yet pleasant air around her. The city looked so peaceful that she could hardly believe that they were fighting tooth and nail just a few scant hours ago or just yesterday. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep.

Feeling the burning in her stomach, Nami began her quest to quell the growing pangs of hunger she was feeling.

As she was walking down the hallway, a guard approached her out of the shadows.

"Nami-san?" he asked/said.

"Yes?" she responded.

"Vivi-sama had asked me to tell you to head towards the Banquet Hall after you woke up."

"Sure." She said.

And then started walking towards the Banquet Hall.

(Thirty Minutes Later)

'Argh!' she grunted, she was lost here. How could she be lost? She was the ship's navigator, she wasn't supposed to get lost, Zoro was supposed to be the directionless idiot.

She cursed herself for not asking the Royal Guard the directions for the Banquet Hall.

As she turned around a corner, she saw a light coming from the room on the far end of the hallway so she started walking towards it.

There were colorful bright flashes of light outside the palace followed by the bursting of firecrackers. It seemed that the city was celebrating the end of war, but Nami paid no heed to it.

She started running towards the room as she was hopelessly lost, the sound of her footsteps masked by the noise outside.

She arrived at the open door just in time to see Naruto sitting on the edge of his bed, buttoning his shirt. There was a girl lying on the bed, asleep. Naruto put on his open toed sandals and walked around the bed. He caressed the girl's cheek affectionately and mouthed something and then he turned around and left the room through the window.

A chilling coldness gripped her heart when saw that act of affection, she was not sure why but there was a twinge of pain in her chest. She moved closer to the bed and examined the sleeping girl shocked to see who she was.

The girl had a peaceful smile on her face and was blissfully unaware of Nami.

She didn't know what overcame her, it was all a blur as she ran away from the room and somehow ended up on the roof with a sake bottle. She was teary-eyed and after taking a few gulps from the bottle, the floodgates that were holding her emotions back opened.

"The scene kept replaying in her mind again and again. Each time she saw what Naruto did, imagining the affection in his voice, her chest started throbbing more and more with each image until she couldn't hold back anymore and started sobbing.

Nami barely heard the door to the roof open and didn't even notice the figure standing by her.

 **OoO**

 **Vivi POV**

Nami was….crying.

Vivi gingerly placed her hand on Nami's shoulder to comfort her but Nami flinched at the contact.

Nami turned around and looked at Vivi, biting her lower lip.

Vivi moved in for a comforting hug and Nami allowed her form to be enveloped.

"W-Why?" Nami mumbled, "Why does it hurt to see another girl with him?"

"What do you mean?" Vivi asked in a soothing voice.

"H-He brought Nico Robin here, she's sleeping in his room now." Nami sobbed.

Vivi was wondering who he was when Nami spoke again.

"Why does it hurt to see him with her? She's a criminal, why is Naruto helping her, isn't he a marine?!" Nami bit her lip, as she clenched the rail with her soft hands.

Oh, she was talking about Naruto, then it hit her as well. Why was Naruto helping their enemy? Wasn't Nico Robin the one who had helped start the civil war?

"Nami….what-what did you see that led to…this?" Vivi asked

"He-he caressed her face really n-nicely, affectionately…. why is he acting so familiar with her? Doesn't he know she's a wanted criminal? She killed Igaram!"

"Uh….actually…Igaram is alright, he arrived in Alubarna today."

Then Vivi realized something, she never asked Igaram how he survived the explosion that Nico Robin had caused.

"That's good news, but that still doesn't excuse Naruto acting so chummy with her, isn't it enough that I lik-" Nami stopped speaking abruptly.

"Yes?" Vivi asked unsure where this was going.

"Enough that I…..like him." Nami said slowly, and then blushed furiously.

"You like Naruto?" Vivi asked again, just to be sure.

"Y-Yeah." Nami sniffled.

"Is this perhaps jealousy you feel seeing him with another women?" Vivi inquired with a small smile.

"Wha-! Why would I be jealous of that...-that tramp?!" Nami huffed.

Vivi giggled at her friend's jealousy, "If you are so worried why Naruto is so 'chummy' with Nico Robin, then why don't you ask him about that? Come, let's find him." Vivi said as she pulled Nami to her feet.

 **OoO**

Naruto had flashed himself in his room in the palace, he had requested a room where no one could bother him so the King had given him this one. It was situated in the Old Palace and no one ever really came here since it was mostly abandoned.

Robin was sleeping now, or rather was unconscious, since she had been already tired in the desert after her venting the anger and add to that the strain of teleporting the first timers felt had knocked her out.

He dug out a yellow shirt from his travel bag and tore off the rags he was wearing, his current shirt had been torn to pieces when Robin was…uh…venting. He buttoned the shirt and turned around to face Robin's sleeping form.

He looked at her face, now that it wasn't twisted into a snarl or utter disgust at him, and he felt he could really appreciate it now.

Robin had really grown over the years, she wasn't that little eight year old girl now, she was a woman grown. She hated him now, detested him and was outright disgusted by him, at least that's what he had deduced.

He had gently laid her down on the bed. He didn't know what came over him but he caressed her cheek. At that moment she wasn't a woman in his eyes, she was the bubbly but still somehow solemn little girl he had made friends with the second time he had visited this world.

Wishing her goodnight, Naruto started walking towards the window.

All he wanted was to sleep because after the day he had had he was really exhausted mentally, but since he had brought Robin into the Palace he felt like the least he could do was inform the King of his decision because those were good manners instilled into him by Old Man Sarutobi.

He went to the throne room where he supposed the king would be and he was correct. The king had just ended the meeting with his council of advisers when Naruto entered.

"Ah, Naruto-san…why aren't you at the party?" Cobra asked Naruto as the last of the advisers filed out of the room.

"I will attend the party later, but I had to tell you something." He said in a serious tone.

"Go on." The King told him.

"Cobra-sama, what are your thoughts on Nico Robin? What kind of person do you think she is based on your encounter with her?" Naruto asked the King.

"Well, all I can say is she is not what she portrays herself to be and she is definitely not what the world thinks of her. What I mean to say is that she had a chance to tell Crocodile the location of the weapon but she didn't, not even when her life was on the line. She saved Luffy-san from the Crocodile's poison even when she didn't have to. I think she's a good person who's been dealt a bad hand in life." The King finished saying.

"That's good, because I'm helping her. She's in my room and I intend to have the Straw-Hats take her in, she needs good people around her." Naruto said bluntly.

"Risky move, but I don't see any problem with that, I'll tell the staff not to go into the old section of the Palace until you leave. How about that?"

"Thank you Cobra-sama, I appreciate you doing this."

"Now then, how about we go to that party. I would like to thank this country's saviors." Cobra said as they he motioned for Naruto to walk with him.

"So tell me Naruto-san, why are you helping out Nico Robin? I know that you are too much of an inquisitive person for your own good but what led you to helping her?"

"Let's just say that I've known her since she was a child and I'd like to think that we….were good friends. I once made a promise to protect her and I'm not one to go back on my word so here we are…." He said.

"Bu-But she's certainly almost ten years older than you…..how could you have known her since she was a child?!" the King asked in bewilderment.

"Let's just say I'm older than I look and leave it at that." Naruto said with a sly smirk.

The King was going to say something when Naruto was promptly whisked off by Luffy and Usopp towards their table.

"Naruto, this is my Nii-chan, Ace!" Luffy introduced them.

"I know, I've met him before." Naruto told Luffy, "How are you Ace-san? I hope Smoker-taichou didn't give you much trouble." He continued.

"Nah, he was no trouble at all but man was he persistent…I must thank you for looking after Luffy when Smoky came, that saved me the trouble and let me go all out against him." Ace said to him.

"No need to thank me, I was just helping out a friend." Naruto said politely.

"Before I forget why I came here, let's get this over with" Ace said as he got something out of his pockets.

It was a thick piece of paper but Naruto could sense some chakra from it, chakra that was exactly the same as Ace's.

"This is my vivre card. It's attuned to me so if you ever need to find me Luffy, then follow this card. It will keep moving in the direction which I'm in." Ace said as he tore the piece in half.

He gave one to Luffy and surprisingly the other one to Naruto.

"Keep it on you Naruto-san, if you ever need help with anything and I mean anything, then come to me and I'll be glad to help. Consider this as my gratitude for helping Luffy out." Ace told Naruto.

"Uh…thanks….I guess. Here take this, if you ever need help, just throw this on a solid surface with the pointy end first and I'll be there in a flash." Naruto said with a solemn smile as he gave Ace his Hiraishin kunai.

He would have left a seal but he wasn't sure how his seals could affect the Logia user. His seals were connected to the person's chakra circulatory system and not just on the surface of the skin, at least not in the case of living beings. He used different type of seal for non-animate things. From what he had heard from Smoker-taichou, the Logia users could transform their bodies into the base element of the respective fruits they ate but the problem was that Naruto could not sense chakra from the Logia user. At least not the normal chakra, Ace was filled to brim with Nature Chakra, even his body seemed to be made up of Senjutsu Chakra, and it was surreal to be honest. The only reason he had even been able to sense Ace was because his body was so attuned to Nature Chakra.

He knew that Senjutsu Chakra could take on a physical appearance, like his Sage Dust techniques for instance, but the nature of Ace's body transcended that. Ace had no chakra circulatory system, if one were to imagine a chakra system, then it would be like plumbing in a house with pipes that provide a way for water to travel throughout the house. But Ace had no pipes in his body, the body was filled with Senjutsu Chakra to the brim, not unlike how you would fill a bucket.

So that's why Naruto opted to give Ace his Hiraishin kunai instead of a seal on the body. Plus he had warded the kunai with protective seals so there was no fear of the Hiraishin marker getting damaged like it was in Robin's case.

After the pleasantries were exchanged, he was challenged by Zoro to a drinking completion.

After once again coming out as a winner, he asked Luffy, who was busy stuffing his mouth with meat, where Nami and Vivi were. But he didn't have to wait long as he was dragged into a corner of the room by Vivi.

"Naruto, you have lot of explaining to do." Vivi said to him in a scolding tone.

"Wha-! Wh-" Naruto began to say but was lightly slapped by Nami, who he hadn't noticed until now.

"Ow! Why did you do that Nami-chan?" Naruto asked, tenderly rubbing his reddening cheek.

Nami wobbled slightly as she took a step closer, getting in Naruto's face, her cheeks flushed likely from the sake.

"Y-you bastard. Gallivanting with s-shome t-tramp while I'm here, worried about you. D-Did you think you could just throw me away like zthat?" Nami slurred.

"I beg your Pardon?" he asked her and then confusedly looked at Vivi and asked, "What has she been drinking?!"

"Don't bother Vivi, anshwer me….w-why ish zthat b-bitsch in your room." She demanded venomously while trying to maintain her balance. She leaned heavily on Naruto and started poking her index finger onto his chest.

"Isn't it e-enough z-that aye like you…huh? W-Why you go and bring another-another girl?!"

"Nami! What are you doing?!" Vivi asked alarmed.

"Telling him zthe truth…..anshwer me Naruto." Nami poked her finger again.

A little bit of brief backstory, Naruto had a really-really soft spot for Robin because he could see his childhood friend and relative in her, Karin Uzumaki.

Before meeting Naruto, Karin had lived in Kusagakure where she and her mother were treated worse than trash. They had to live on the outskirts and always on alert because they never knew when someone might decide that they were no use to the village. He could see parallels between Robin and Karin, they had led similar lives and because of his closeness to Karin he could relate to Robin and his blood boiled when Nami started calling Robin names. In that haze, he never forgot that Nami had confessed to him.

"NEVER call Robin-chan names like that. She already has had enough of a bad life without others treating her like shit and now you too?!" Naruto spat out those words with rage filled intensity.

The look on Nami's face mellowed his anger and he put his hands on her shoulder to stop her from running away.

She looked just about ready to cry, her lips were quivering and she had a look of betrayal on her face.

She struggled to get out of Naruto's grasp but was unable to, so she started hitting his chest weakly.

"Let me go you bastard…" she said weakly.

"Nami-chan…..I'm sorry, I shouldn't have had that outburst." Naruto apologized.

"Why not? You already found another girl….if not that you have Tashigi…I'm jusht another girl in your life... aren't I?" she said bitterly.

"Nami-chan, how many times must I tell you to get this through your skull, you're my nakama, my friend…not just some girl I met. I would do anything for you and the other guys and I'm sure you'd do the same for me. Together we share a bond that not even death would violate. You're my precious friend so stop putting yourself down." He said.

"Then who is that girl to you? Why are you so protective of her?" Nami asked as tears flowed down her cheeks.

"I'm just as protective of you as I am of her. She's my friend as well and she's had a bad life, that's why I was so angry at you for speaking like that….I thought you would understand her pain but then you went and said something like that." He said as he wiped her tears with his sleeve.

"I was going to introduce you guys tomorrow, I intended to ask Luffy to take her in as a crew member but now…I'm not so sure." He told her solemnly.

A million thoughts were running through Nami's head but the most prominent was about the fact that Naruto was disappointed in her. She hated this wrenching feeling in her gut about letting him down.

"I-I'm shorry for calling y-your friend names, it's jusht that I…I didn't want to l-lose you." Nami said with her held down.

"What do you mean lose me? I'll be there with you guys till the end if I can help it." He said with a chuckle, his previous anger all washed away.

"I-Idiot." She mumbled silently.

"Huh? You said something?" he asked innocently.

"Nothing, jusht that you're an idiot." She smiled to herself, all the previous pain and jealously gone….for now.

"Come Nami-chan, stop crying, you're not gonna lose me so let's enjoy the party." He said pulling her out of darkness of the corner and into light of the Banquet Hall.

Vivi was left there dumbstruck, how could her marine friend be so dense?! He just forgot about Nami's confession and did he….did he friend zone Nami?

But she was soon dragged into the party by Sanji and chose to forget about it in favor of enjoying the celebrations.

Her people were finally free.

 **OoO**

The party had raged on till the wee hours, some of the Straw-Hat members were drunk, some were bloated with food and one was sleeping with his head rested in the lap of one of the female dancers with blood coming out of his nose and a perverted smile on his face.

It was a cloudless night and the stars and the moon were shining their soft glow on the palace. Bathed in the silver light sat Naruto, meditating and searching for his inner balance. He was reminiscing about the past. His life in the elemental nations, his friends and…..them.

God! How much he missed them both. Ino's brutal honesty and Karin's caring attitude, the wounds of losing them were still present, and their echoes leading to his heartache. He couldn't even bring them back from the afterlife, sometimes he just felt so useless for letting them die.

Even today, all that planning he had done, it had been useless. It was that sheer luck of his that no one had died in today's battle.

This being his first time living in another world, he was a bit apprehensive about taking a more active role in the on goings but if he wanted to achieve peace in this world, then he would need to stop being the pacifist that he was. He needed to assimilate as much information as soon as possible for him to make his move.

This decision of his was the one that created the first ripple in the sea of destiny of this world. In a yellow flash, he disappeared from the roof.

 **OoO**

Naruto appeared in a room where shelves were stacked with scrolls. He moved in a sure way towards a shelf, he was a man who knew what to do next. After a few seconds, he moved away from the shelf, a scroll in hand.

He walked towards the table in the center of the room and sat by it, opening the scroll. The scroll was safeguarded against unwanted intrusion by having seals that only allowed its master to open it, anyone else trying to open the scroll would fall into a powerful genjutsu and then their chakra would be absorbed by the scroll to strengthen its defense mechanism.

There were three seals that Naruto had to bypass before he could read the contents of the scroll. He pulled upon his Uzumaki chakra and let it flow through the seals, the seals lighted up with a bluish-orange glow. Then he added Kurama's chakra into the mix and the color changed to dark red and finally he added the Six Paths Sage chakra and the seals glowed a brilliant hue of gold, the color of sun before there was a popping sound and out came another scroll.

It was the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing, it was here on Mount Myoboku because Sandaime had deemed Konoha an unsafe place for it and thus it was placed here, away from the greed of humanity. It contained within itself the dangerous-to-use sealing techniques such as the shadow clone jutsu, eight trigram sealing style.

What he was going to do was forbidden, no one was supposed to learn techniques from the Scroll of Sealing by the decree of the Shodaime but he was never the one to follow rules.

The technique he wanted to use was called, 'Seishin Bunshin no Jutsu'. This technique was dangerous for the fact that it split the user's spirit into equal parts and created a clone that could sustain itself indefinitely and create its own chakra but it consumed a huge amount of chakra to create one and threatened the integrity of the users psyche.

With each clone, the user lost a part of his soul and with that, a part of his mind. It was redundant technique for the most part but Naruto had theorized a loophole that might help him create such clones without losing parts of his mental self. This technique would help him learn all the matters of the pirate world faster than he could do it alone.

After scribbling down the technique's theory and its hand signs onto another blank scroll, he rolled it up and sealed it up within the first scroll again. He placed it on the shelf, where it was indistinguishable from all the other scrolls that adorned the walls.

He exited the room and made his way towards Ma and Pa's house. On the way, he met some early risers practicing toad kata and made small talk with them.

They were all relieved that Naruto hadn't abandoned their clan and had just been on a long break….a very long break.

He knocked on the door and a Ma's voice called, "Come in Pa, did you bring the bog devil flies that I asked you to?"

"I'm sure he will bring them when he actually comes home." He said cheekily.

"Naru-Chan!" she cried out as she jumped in for what seemed like a hug. Naruto spread his hands to embrace his other baachan but was awarded a hit from the pan of death, with the oil grease flying all over his clothes.

"OW! What did you do that for?" he asked nursing the growing bump on the back of his head. "And I just had these clothes dry cleaned." He added.

"What were you thinking Naruto? It's been a year since I last saw you! Where were you? We were worried." Shima said as she hugged him at last, slightly teary eyed.

"I'll tell you everything, that's why I came here but most of all is because I missed you guys." Naruto said as he gently sat down on the mat.

"Ma! Is that human sandals outside our door? Is it who I thin-" an old voice called out as the figure entered the room.

"Pa! It's so nice to see you guys both again." Naruto told Fukasaku.

"Naruto, my boy. Where have you been for the past year? Ma was so worried about you that she wouldn't even allow me to eat in peace." Pa complained as he dropped the basket containing some kind of big red flies on the kitchen counter. "Not that her food is edible." He said to Naruto just low enough for Naruto to hear which brought out a small smile on his face.

"I was visiting other...well…worlds. Did you guys know that there were other worlds? I have theorized that they are actually other planets based on differences that I have found. Like for instance the world in which the Biju's are in has three moons!"

"One other world had different animals that talked and walked like humans not unlike summons on our world but they had flying vehicles! And these are just among the countless ones I have visited. "He said.

While Naruto was speaking, Ma had transferred the flies and other all kinds of colorful insects into a bowls and was setting them up on the table.

"Speaking of these new worlds…I have…well…sort of adopted a one of them now, I was there for the last month or two and I even summoned Gamabaku to inform you that I was alright, but I see now that it was not enough. I apologize for worrying you guys, especially you Shima-baachan. I have friends and people I'm duty bound to protect there and I don't want them to know the horrors of fighting amongst each other that we've seen.

"Even far from home, the Will of Fire burns brightly among some in that world and that has given me cause enough to interfere, I want to help bring a form of order there, the government seems corrupt and the world is run over by pirates. I want to help people of those world just as I somehow did for this world." He ended his explanation and started eating.

Over the years, he had grown accustomed to eating all kinds of stuff and eating insects was no longer revolting to him.

"So, how have the Elemental Nations been doing?" he said through a mouthful of crunchy beetles.

"That depends, when was the last time you left that tropical island of yours?" Pa asked.

"About forty years give or take." Naruto said as he took a sip of water.

"Well, in Konoha there is no longer a position of Hokage, the village is run smoothly by a council of wise men comprised of both ninjas and civilians. There are six members, a healer, a scholar and a priest, these are the civilian leaders of the council and the Jounin commander, the ANBU commander and the head of ninja academy's teachers association and or the head of medic ninja association run the villages.

"Other nations seem to follow similar arrangement, and the peace has been strengthened by marriage pacts among every nation. All the Daimyos with their village's respective council meet up every six months to discuss ideas on how to advance this world without the help of chakra. The levels of chakra levels in humans are decreasing as well…maybe it's because there is no infighting among the nations. I'd give it another two or three centuries before the ninja system will be dismantled due to miniscule chakra levels."

"That's good….right?" Naruto asked.

"Well it is for the most part but…ah never mind. So, how many days are you here for this time?" Pa said changing the subject.

"I'll be leaving soon, I have to go meet the Bijus too, asked them if they will help me protect the new world, something that Rikudo jiji told me is the reason. He says there are other beings far powerful than him and me and that I'll need all the help that I can get to defeat them should they ever deem me a threat." Naruto told them as he got up to wash his hands.

They talked about his old life, their new life about Gamakichi and his three children and how they all were formidable summons. In the end they talked for about three hours.

"Call us if you ever need any help, we've still got a few centuries in us before we become like the Great Toad Sage, senile and fat." Pa told him as he hugged him for one last time.

"Be safe Naruto and summon us to the new world sometime, I want to see these…new friends of yours."

Naruto grinned.

"Sure, I want you guys to meet them as well but one surprise at a time."

After bidding them farewell, Naruto exited the house and went to the top of the hill, the same hill where he once practiced his frog kata.

"Well, let's see…hmm…not this…not this one either…Aha!" he mumbled to himself as he found the scroll he was looking for.

Channeling some Senjutsu chakra in the scroll, he threw the scroll in front and it glowed a bright golden and then there was a void tunnel of utter darkness in front of him with light at the end.

He had finished making the miniature dimension hopping seal when he was on the ship that was headed to Alabasta.

Jumping in, only one thought crossed his mind, "Here I come guys!"

 **OoO**

 **Well this is mostly a filler chapter, sort of setting the scene for the next arc. Read, Review and PM me your favorite scene in the chapter, mine was writing drunk Nami!**

 **By the way I am writing two other stories simultaneously along with this one, they are called 'The Spider' and 'Jon Snow – The Arachnid' if you love this story and are interested in those fandoms kindly check those out .**

 **Check my profile if you need more info on the stories.**

 **This chapter was beta-ed and reviewed by KizunaUzumaki and Lightningblade49, check their stuff out if you're interested.**

 **Have a nice day :)**


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